{"id":583859,"date":"2026-05-14T16:13:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T16:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/583859\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T16:13:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T16:13:14","slug":"chris-billam-smith-risks-ryan-rozicki-fight-before-jai-opetaia-pursuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/583859\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Billam-Smith Risks Ryan Rozicki Fight Before Jai Opetaia Pursuit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=boxing247.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"208\" alt=\"Add East Side Boxing as a preferred source on Google\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770669047_552_google.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqKAgKIiJDQklTRXdnTWFnOEtEV0p2ZUdsdVp6STBOeTVqYjIwb0FBUAE?ceid=US:en&amp;oc=3&amp;hl=en-US&amp;gl=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><br \/>\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"128\" alt=\"Follow East Side Boxing on Google News\" style=\"height:100%; width:auto; display:block;\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/follow-google-news.png\"\/><br \/>\n  <\/a> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to prove I\u2019m the best cruiserweight in the world and keep improving,\u201d Billam-Smith told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sky Sports<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s what I want to be seen as and known as. The No. 1 in the world. I don\u2019t do that without beating Opetaia, so that\u2019s the aim.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The fight also carries importance for <a class=\"thirstylink\" rel=\"sponsored nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Paramount\" href=\"https:\/\/www.boxing247.com\/go\/paramount\" data-shortcode=\"true\">Zuffa Boxing<\/a> as the promotion attempts to establish itself in the UK market. Billam-Smith is one of the better-known British names at cruiserweight, and a strong performance in front of his hometown crowd could position him as one of the faces of the company\u2019s expansion plans.<\/p>\n<p>Trainer Shane McGuigan believes there are openings in Opetaia\u2019s style despite his dominance at cruiserweight. McGuigan pointed to the Australian being hurt against David Nyika before eventually scoring a knockout win.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are vulnerabilities there with Jai Opetaia,\u201d McGuigan said. \u201cHe\u2019s not fought somebody like Chris.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McGuigan believes Billam-Smith\u2019s pressure, physical strength, and work rate could create a different kind of fight than the one Opetaia faced against Nyika or Mairis Briedis. Billam-Smith has often relied on volume punching and sustained pressure rather than single-shot power, especially in difficult fights.<\/p>\n<p>The Bournemouth crowd could also play a role. Billam-Smith has previously produced some of his biggest performances there, including his win over Lawrence Okolie, where the home support helped swing the atmosphere heavily in his favor.<\/p>\n<p>Even with that advantage, Billam-Smith still enters the fight chasing the division leader. Opetaia is widely viewed as the top cruiserweight in the world, leaving Billam-Smith needing both a win over Rozicki and a future victory over the Australian to fully back up his claim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI want to prove I\u2019m the best cruiserweight in the world and keep improving,\u201d Billam-Smith told Sky Sports.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-583859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583859","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=583859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}