BOURNEMOUTH, England – Chris Billam-Smith might have been too good for Canadian Ryan Rozicki but he had to endure seven rounds of hostile fire before the visitor’s corner compassionately withdrew their man from battle.
It was a bloody, engrossing affair, with both wounded and Rozicki hurt on occasion but never giving ground in his pursuit of the Englishman.
Bournemouth’s Billam-Smith, 22-2 (14 KOs), thrilled his fans once again and again gave his fans everything he had, taking huge shots to win the fight and doubtless put himself in line for another big fight.
Billam-Smith lost early in his career to Richard Riakporhe and then lost his WBO cruiserweight title to Gilberto Ramirez, but returned to defeat Brandon Glanton last year and now Rozicki to set up another run at a title.
Rozicki, now 21-2 (20 KOs), was like a bad guy in a horror movie that you couldn’t kill.
He maintained his furious pursuit until the bitter end having started out clutching a bible and then scowling at CBS as the Bournemouth hero was introduced to his fans.
Rozicki was a mauling menace and was soon warned for shots to the back of the head. By that point, he’d landed a big left hook and looked for rights to the body and head.
They jostled aggressively for position. Billam-Smith caught him with some left hooks as the Canadian attacked and Rozicki, cut by his left eye, gulped down a right hand.
The visitor’s pressure was forcing Billam-Smith to fight off the ropes and both had scored with hard shots in an enthralling if somewhat scrappy opener.
The focus of Billam-Smith’s attack shifted initially to the body in the second.
The cleaner work was being done by Billam-Smith and Rozicki had a point docked for use of the head and maybe even hitting after the referee called break.
Rozicki had the will but not the quality to overwhelm the former WBO champion but, of course, he remained a threat with his left hook and right hand, the shots that had seen him stop 20 of his 21 victims.
More than a minute into the third CBS landed the punch of the fight so far to both rattle and stagger the Canadian. A short right uppercut dazed the visitor who was cut badly above the left eye, too, and becoming wilder and more ungainly with his crude swings.
Having wound up the partisan crowd with his roughhouse tactics early on, Rozicki was feeling the wrath of the Bournemouth audience as they screeched and shouted after every Billam-Smith bomb that jolted Rozicki’s bloody features this way and that.
To his credit, Rozicki was game but as the fourth started his tank was surely running empty.
Billam-Smith has shown he can look exhausted but still operate in the trenches and Rozicki was going to have to prove he could do it now, too.
Rozicki’s white shots were bathed in a bloody red dye, he blinked through the cuts, but still planted his feet and slugged away, catching Billam-Smith with a clean left hook for his troubles. CBS again had to protest to the referee about the Canadian coming in head first but the Englishman sent a calm, reassuring nod to trainer Shane McGuigan as he walked back to his corner.
Early in the fifth, a Billam-Smith right and pair of left hooks failed to deter Rozicki, who chopped away with his own hooks.
Next to me on press rowm, former world super middleweight champion Steve Collins said: “They both look tired.”
That was a fair statement.
Billam-Smith cracked his man with two right hands, but Rozicki merely leapt in with a left hook to show he was still dangerous.
By now, Billam-Smith was bleeding above his right eye.
The action was paused in the sixth for Billam-Smith to have his mouthpiece replaced but the action didn’t slow for long and while CBS gave ground, he landed an array of shots off the back foot as Rozicki plundered forwards. Rozicki was ridiculously tough and equally stubborn.
“What’s he made of?” asked veteran writer Steve Bunce ringside.
That was a fair question.
Yet Rozicki rose from his corner like The Terminator in the seventh. Expressionless. Robotic. But his face was soon drenched in his own blood again and, astonishingly, he kept coming.
With 10 seconds to go in the round, Billam-Smith walloped Rozicki with a brace of rights and a crushing left. Maybe with more time, Nillam-Smith could have yanked down the bloody curtain on the show but Rozicki’s corner, led by former light heavyweight Shaun George, made the compassionate call and refused to let him go out for the eighth round.
Billam-Smith saluted his jubilant fans at the Bournemouth International Centre, Dana White applauded the corner’s decision and the Bournemouth man had once again delighted his home fans in the town where he has now fended off Lawrence Okolie, Isaac Chamberlain, Mateus Masternak, Rozicki and Armend Xhoxhaj.
Billam-Smith has been pushed hard in all of those fights and while big opportunities might lie ahead for Billam-Smith, including the fight he covets with Jai Opetaia, a family man like Chris could do worse than visit the bank manager on Monday morning to see if he must do this anymore. He’s clearly one of the best in the world, but he has a bright future, too, whether he boxes or not.