{"id":382668,"date":"2026-01-21T18:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T18:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/382668\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T18:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T18:21:08","slug":"chris-billam-smith-rules-out-comeback-fight-against-jack-massey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/382668\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Billam-Smith rules out comeback fight against Jack Massey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Billam-Smith<\/a> sees ‘absolutely no point\u2019 in a domestic clash with Jack Massey as he attempts to muscle his way back into the world title picture.
The former WBO cruiserweight champion, who lost his title in a unification clash with Gilberto Ramirez<\/a> in November 2024, has not boxed since he beat Brandon Glanton<\/a> in London on April 26 last year.
But CBS, The Ring<\/a>\u2019s No. 2-rated cruiserweight, is back in the gym and working towards a ring return at some point during the spring. He is now a free agent, having reached the end of his contract with Boxxer, and is currently assessing all available offers.
One of those came from his former promoter Ben Shalom, who presented him the chance to face Cheshire\u2019s \u2018One Smack\u2019 Massey (23-2, 13 KOs). As reported by The Ring, the Boxxer head revealed he was only willing to match Billam-Smith with Massey or Ring champion Jai Opetaia<\/a> and now the Bournemouth man has responded to that suggestion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell I\u2019ve never had an offer about an Opetaia fight,\u201d he told The Ring. \u201cWe were very open to listening to them about the next steps once my contract ended.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the only fight that has been offered to us is the Massey fight and it was only informally offered anyway, there was nothing official about that or the Opetaia fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Massey, 32, is a one-time world title challenger having faced recent Zuffa Boxing signee Opetaia<\/a> in October 2024. He also lost on points to Joseph Parker in 2023 while he failed in his 2019 attempt for the vacant British title against Richard Riakporhe in December 2019.<\/p>\n

Now Billam-Smith (21-2, 13 KOs) has ruled out the possibility of facing Massey because he can\u2019t work out where the upside is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t see any value in that fight at all,\u201d he said. \u201cEven if they could come up with great money, it’s more about the value of the fight for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is absolutely no point in fighting him because I don\u2019t see what I gain from it. If I beat him in a round or two all it does is show people that I\u2019m still at world level.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then there\u2019s a chance I could do that in my next fight potentially for a world title – that would prove that I\u2019m at world level. I proved that by beating Brandon Glanton anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat fight just doesn\u2019t give me anything. Even if you think of the best case scenario, which is that I go out there and demolish him in a round or two, then it doesn\u2019t prove anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if you look at the fight then you wouldn\u2019t expect me to go in there and demolish him in a round or two because he\u2019s tough and durable. I\u2019m very confident I\u2019d beat him but he\u2019s durable. If I go and do the same or better than Opetaia did all it does is prove I\u2019m at world level. I\u2019d rather do that in a more meaningful fight with more value and more on the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Massey went and boxed Glanton and did better than I did then there\u2019s more value in the fight for me but at the moment, there\u2019s simply no value.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris Billam-Smith sees ‘absolutely no point\u2019 in a domestic clash with Jack Massey as he attempts to muscle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6842,6836,6841,6840,6834,6102,6837,6838,6839,6835,6588,6847,6846,6830,6828,6829,6844,6831,6827,6848,6843,101,6845,6826,6833,56,54,55,6832],"class_list":["post-382668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-community","tag-boxing-fights","tag-boxing-history","tag-boxing-interviews","tag-boxing-magazine","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxing-photos","tag-boxing-rankings","tag-boxing-schedule","tag-boxing-videos","tag-boxing-results","tag-disqualification","tag-draw","tag-fight","tag-fighter","tag-fighter-news","tag-knockout","tag-latest-boxing-matches","tag-ring","tag-ring-magazine","tag-split-decision","tag-sports","tag-technical-knockout","tag-the-ring","tag-top-fighters","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}