WBO Cruiserweight champion, Lawrence Okolie, will face fellow Brit Chris Billam-Smith who remains one of the most high-ranking contenders in the divison. The two are slated to meet each other on May 27th at the Vitality Stadium (otherwise known as Dean Court) in Bournemouth based in the United Kingdom.
Both fighters had been stable mates at Shane McGuigan’s gym prior to Lawrence Okolie (19-0, 14 KO’s) moving on to train under Sugar Hill Steward earlier this year. Chris Billam-Smith (17-1, 12 KO’s), who is still apprenticed to McGuigan, will therefore be a familiar face for Okolie to be matched against.
While both fighters have admittedly liked each other, they also seemed intent on meeting their individual goals, with Okolie remarking that he was looking to “make a statement” ― at the press-conference held today on April 4th ― while Billam-Smith mentioned it “is business” as far as he was concerned.
Obviously, with the two having had a past belonging to the same gym and trainer, the two are quite familiar with each other when it comes to their fighting skills.
“I think we probably did over 300 rounds.” Chris Billam-Smith remarked at the presser of his fight with Lawrence Okolie.
“They were learning learning curves for both of us. We both learned a lot in sparring, we both built ourselves up to (become) world-level fighters. No one else has done as many rounds with him.“
Lawrence Okolie, who fought just a little more than a week ago on March 25th against David Light (20-1, 12 KO’s), also maintained that he was fit enough to head right back into training camp this month for his May 27th fight with Chris Billam-Smith.
“I’m back a week after my last fight; no injuries, no damage, so why not go back into the ring?” Lawrence Okolie stated confidently.
In Chris Billam-Smith, Okolie faces another worthwhile contender who is highly-regarded as a top 15 contender in the Cruisreweight division, and is positioned as a top 10 fighter on all of the official governing body ranking boards. Smith is most known as one of a trio of British Cruiserweights who are considered to be the best the country has to offer. That list includes Lawrence Okolie and Richard Riakporhe (16-0, 12 KO’s), the latter of who is considered Okolie’s main rival and has defeated Billam-Smith years before.
However, despite Billam-Smith’s own credentials as a fighter, he will be facing a fighter in Okolie who is considered the best out of the three as evident by the WBO world title he holds. Since 2021, Okolie has noticeably stepped up in the level of opponents and his hard work culminated with a world championship win for the vacant WBO title in March of that year against Krzysztof Głowacki (32-4, 20 KO’s).
Lawrence Okolie went on to face a slew of credible contenders since then, but has yet to unify. Though a win over Chris Billam-Smith may perhaps be the most credible out of all the previous three defenses he has made, there is still some doubts as to how his ability stacks up against the other champions in the division; Badou Jack (28-3-3, 17 KO’s), Jai Opetaia (22-0, 17 KO’s) and Arsen Goulamirian (27-0, 18 KO’s).
The best chance to actually determine the best in the division will be to hold a World Boxing Super Series tournament such as has been held twice for the division of the past. Most notably, Oleksandr Usyk (20-0, 13 KO’s) was the one to come out of this competition as a unified champion, while Mairis Briedis (28-2, 20 KO’s) came out the winner of the latest WBSS tournament for the Cruiserweight division, held then between 2017 and 2018 in the wake of Usyk relinquishing his titles to move up to Heavyweight.
