Ryan Rozicki embodies so much of what Zuffa Boxing executives have railed against in their dismissal of the sport\u2019s four sanctioning bodies.<\/p>\n
After multiple delays and repeated frustrations in attempting to land a world-title shot, Rozicki walked away from being the WBC\u2019s No. 1-ranked cruiserweight contender to join Zuffa.<\/p>\n
The new promotion headed by TKO Group executives Nick Khan and Dana White makes its U.K. debut Saturday night on Paramount+ and Sky by staging Canada\u2019s Rozicki, 21-1-1 (20 KOs), versus former WBO champion Chris Billam-Smith, 21-2 (13 KOs), in the main event.<\/p>\n
\u201cChris was the best, highest-ranked opponent available. This was the greatest [streaming] platform. It was a no-brainer,\u201d Rozicki told BoxingScene. \u201cAnd they said, \u2018If you can beat him, you\u2019re going to get these guys that are even better fighters.\u2019 So I thought, \u2018Why wouldn\u2019t I do that instead of chasing guys behind me?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Rozicki is referencing unbeaten Zuffa cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia, the recent IBF champion who\u2019s finalizing a deal to fight Rozicki\u2019s WBC-champion nemesis Noel Mikaelian.<\/p>\n
In late November, Rozicki boarded a flight to Thailand to effectively communicate his angst at the WBC Convention in Bangkok after languishing so long in line for a fight against Mikaelian, and for a deserved shot at the belt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe world title was a goal I chased for a long time, but then you saw what happened,\u201d Rozicki said in reference to Mikaelian\u2019s repeated withdrawals from a WBC cruiserweight title fight versus Rozicki dating to 2024.<\/p>\n
When Rozicki, 31, was finally in position to have a title shot at Badou Jack, he suffered a biceps injury he blames on prolonged training and had to watch in distress as Mikaelian got the title fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had more injuries from all that training than the torn biceps. I just didn\u2019t publicize them,\u201d Rozicki said. \u201cI should\u2019ve got the Badou Jack fight, but who gets the opportunity? Mikaelian. Who loses, and then gets a rematch? Mikaelian. I\u2019m sitting there watching this whole thing, wondering, \u2018Why is he the one getting the rematch?\u2019 He got his shot. He loses, he should be out.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut then he gets the belt [by defeating Jack in the December rematch]. Now, we\u2019ve seen him hold that belt hostage for as long as he possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Rozicki, the silliness of the gamesmanship and selective maneuvering is especially troubling since he has extensively studied and modelled his career after the no-nonsense legendary heavyweight champion from 1919-1926, Jack Dempsey.<\/p>\n
\u201cI only followed the eras of Dempsey, [Rocky] Marciano and [Joe] Louis, when you had world champions who would fight the top contenders,\u201d he said. \u201cWhereas, today, I don\u2019t know what\u2019s happened to boxing \u2013 is it politics? Is it money?<\/p>\n
\u201cFighters get to choose if they want to defend against this guy or not. I was No. 1 mandatory for how long? And how many times did I get to go into the ring and fight for it? Zero. It makes no sense. I just stopped fixating on it, and my goal now is to get into the ring with the best fighters I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Billam-Smith, 35, hosts Rozicki in his hometown of Bournemouth, England after previously standing as cruiserweight champion for more than a year before losing his WBO belt in 2024 to Mexico\u2019s Gilberto \u201cZurdo\u201d Ramirez.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to the fight, to the challenge. He\u2019s a hell of a fighter. I\u2019ve seen him fight in person. I know what I\u2019m up against,\u201d Rozicki said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the first fight in a long time I\u2019m going in with no injuries. Whatever happens in the fight happens, but I know I\u2019m coming there as best as I can be.\u201d<\/p>\n
It offers insight into the truth Rozicki espouses as a throwback, as a man who said he knew since childhood he was born to be a fighter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some of those battles took place out of the ring, and many with himself, as Rozicki strayed into trouble that imperiled his boxing ambition.<\/p>\n
Having read Dempsey\u2019s life story, Rozicki recounted a tale he told the WBC board in Thailand, yearning to communicate his devotion to the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was this time I went real sideways and fell into some real tough situations outside the ring, heading down a bad path again,\u201d Rozicki said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went to an amateur boxing show my friend invited me to, along with a couple kids who wanted me to work the corner. In the dressing room, this old guy said, \u2018I\u2019ve got something for you,\u2019 and he gave me this book. Jack Dempsey\u2019s book. A very rare, old copy of his life story, one of the last books he\u2019d ever written. I took it and thought, \u2018Wow, this is a sign for me to get my head back to boxing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Rozicki carries that book with him to every fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing I haven\u2019t seen on [Dempsey] \u2013 read every book,\u201d Rozicki said. \u201cThen I would look up his opponents, read all of that and it spiraled from there. I became almost obsessed with those whole era \u2013 all the way up to the 1950s.<\/p>\n
\u201cDempsey was my inspiration. I wanted to fight like him, be like him. That was always the thing that kept me on track.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some would say Rozicki\u2019s aggressive, defensively lax style is a pure copy of the \u201cManassa Mauler\u2019s\u201d way.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a huge misconception on that, and Dempsey actually has a book called, \u2018Aggressive Defense,\u2019\u201d Rozicki said. \u201cHis whole thing was that the best defense is a good offense. His defense was a lot better than people give him credit for. He was extremely hard to hit. A lot of his opponents, including [Gene] Tunney, talked about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if you hit him, he used to chew pine gum so his jaw was like cement. He was so hard to knock out. Even just to hit him clean, he would always be coming right at you but his head was constantly moving on a figure eight, which I try my best to emulate. Sometimes it\u2019s not a traditional style, like [heavyweight champion Oleksandr] Usyk, where I\u2019m stepping into range or a [Vasiliy] Lomachenko style, where I\u2019m coming around the side\u2026 I\u2019m coming straight at them. It\u2019s very easy to think I don\u2019t have a defense. Truth is, if I didn\u2019t have a defense, I would\u2019ve been stopped countless times.\u201d <\/p>\n
Rozicki is 15-0-1 as a cruiserweight, with his one loss coming five years ago as a heavyweight.<\/p>\n
Now, he ventures to the old world.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like it. It\u2019s an old-school way to do it: Go into their backyard as an underdog,\u201d Rozicki said. \u201cI\u2019ve got a real champion in front of me. I can\u2019t wait.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know he\u2019s a great fighter and I have a lot of respect for him, but when the bell rings, that all goes out the window, and I\u2019m going to try and hurt him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryan Rozicki embodies so much of what Zuffa Boxing executives have railed against in their dismissal of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6102,10078,17029,12728,101,56,54,55,78289],"class_list":["post-617851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxingscene","tag-chris-billam-smith","tag-ryan-rozicki","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-zuffa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617851","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=617851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}