Dana White\u2019s Zuffa Boxing have announced another major signing in former cruiserweight world champion Chris Billam-Smith.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really excited by this opportunity to work with Zuffa and Sky Sports,\u201d said Billam-Smith in a statement sent to Boxing Social. \u201cWhen two powerhouses in the world of entertainment come together like this, you know it will be a success, and you want to be a part of that. This move is about proving I am the best in the world. I can\u2019t wait to get back in the ring, headlining shows, live on Sky Sports.\u201d<\/p>\n
The signing adds some serious intrigue at 200 pounds with Zuffa making a splash to sign former IBF world champion Jai Opetaia in January. <\/p>\n
Billam-Smith (21-2, 13 KOs) defeated Lawrence Okolie to claim the WBO cruiserweight belt in May 2023. He would defend his belt against Mateusz Masternak and Richard Riakporhe before losing in a unification bout with Gilberto Ramirez. The 35-year-old returned with a unanimous decision victory over Brandon Glanton last April and is approaching a year of inactivity. Billam-Smith was previously promoted by Ben Shalom\u2019s Boxxer, who previously had a broadcast deal with Sky Sports. <\/p>\n
Zuffa have said in the same statement that Billam-Smith, \u201chas signed a multi-fight deal with the company, with his promotional debut to be announced in the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dana White\u2019s Zuffa Boxing have announced another major signing in former cruiserweight world champion Chris Billam-Smith.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m really…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-604338","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}