His focus remains on cruiserweight titles, familiar ground for him, even if not every meaningful fight available sits at 200 pounds.
One of the names that continues to come up is Deontay Wilder.
Billam-Smith does not present it as a division change or a career pivot. He talks about it as a specific fight. He has said openly that heavyweight as a division does not suit him, and that view has not changed. Wilder, potentially at bridgerweight, is treated as an exception rather than a rule.
“I don’t think my style suits heavyweight,” Billam-Smith said on the Toe2Toe podcast. “But I’d love that fight.”
He pointed to his past against punchers and fighters who rely heavily on a single power shot. In his view, those matchups have often played into his strengths rather than exposing weaknesses.
“When I’ve boxed punchers with a big right hand, I’ve done alright,” he said. “Stylistically, that would be good for me.”
He also made it clear that this thinking does not extend to the division as a whole. Billam-Smith mentioned only two scenarios that would pull him out of cruiserweight.
The first involves Lawrence Okolie. Billam-Smith remains the only man to beat him as a professional. If Okolie were to win a heavyweight title, that result would carry renewed relevance, and a rematch would come with an obvious narrative.
The second is Wilder. A known risk, a known name, and a fight that still commands attention despite Wilder’s recent setbacks.
For now, Billam-Smith’s focus stays at cruiserweight, where Noel Mikaelian holds the WBC title. That is the belt he is targeting next, and it represents a direct step back into the title picture.
The division, however, may not stay simple for long.
David Benavidez is expected to move up from light heavyweight and challenge Ramirez for the WBA and WBO titles. If that fight happens, it reshapes the top of the weight class immediately, and Billam-Smith will be watching closely.
“We want him to beat Zurdo, and we want to fight him,” Billam-Smith said. “That’s my view. That’s the team’s view.”
The reasoning is practical. If Benavidez beats Ramirez, he becomes a champion and also the man who beat the fighter who took Billam-Smith’s title. That link still carries weight in boxing, even when it is left unstated.
Billam-Smith sees the fight as close.
“I make Zurdo the favourite,” he said. “But it’s close. Very close. Benavidez has the style to beat him. Zurdo is very clever.”
He did not dress it up.
“What a name,” he said. “What a fight.”
Big names still matter to him, as do the stages that come with them. Las Vegas remains part of the ambition rather than a box already ticked.
“If I can go to Vegas, even better,” he said. “That dream is still there.”
Above all of it sits Jai Opetaia, the IBF champion, and Billam-Smith has already mapped out how he wants to get there.
Mikaelian first. Then Benavidez. Then Opetaia. Three fights, moving in sequence, each one building toward the next.
That route would give him titles, leverage, and control. It would put him into an Opetaia fight with something to negotiate with rather than just hope.
“In an ideal world, that would be the route,” he said.
He did not pretend that boxing usually allows ideal routes. He knows plans change quickly. But the direction is clear. He is choosing his shots, aware that the window does not stay open forever.
Read the full article here