\n<\/p>\n
Losing to Ramirez in Saudi Arabia was just the second defeat of Billam-Smith’s career having previously avenged his other loss to Richard Riakporhe.<\/p>\n
He travelled to the Middle East last November to face the Mexican who has only ever been beaten by pound-for-pound star and 175lbs world champion Dmitry Bivol.<\/p>\n
Ramirez proved to be too good for Billam-Smith on the night as he came out on top in a gruelling 12-round contest to add the WBO title to his WBA belt. <\/p>\n
But despite falling short on the very biggest of stages, Billam-Smith said that one year on from the fight he was glad he went through the experience. <\/p>\n
“I’m so grateful for it in a strange way,” Billam-Smith added.<\/p>\n
“I think going into this next year now the experience will really benefit me, obviously I wanted to win that fight but there’s plenty positives to take out of the defeat.<\/p>\n
“I’ve had to definitely polish up my skills and think about not just playing to my strengths the whole time, they’re not always gonna work especially at a top level against a super-skilled fighter like Zurdo and Opetaia.”<\/p>\n
Billam-Smith admitted that over the past few years, balancing boxing with family time has been a tough challenge. <\/p>\n
He and his wife Mia are parents to two young boys and live in Chris’ hometown of Bournemouth. <\/p>\n
The former cruiserweight champion has previously admitted that he does not have “ages left in the game” at this stage of his career, and after a break to reconnect with his loved ones, he feels ready to pursue whatever may be in store for this next chapter.<\/p>\n
“Time off has done me good and I think it’s kind of reignited a new flame and a motivation,” Billam-Smith said.<\/p>\n
“I wasn’t enjoying boxing in the camp before the Glanton fight, maybe because of the loss to Zurdo and being away from home so much.<\/p>\n
“I’ve had a good stint now where I’ve been out to spend a lot of time at home and be present since my second son was born and now I feel like I’ve flipped things round and I can really switch on and go for undisputed.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Losing to Ramirez in Saudi Arabia was just the second defeat of Billam-Smith’s career having previously avenged his other loss to Richard Riakporhe. He travelled to the Middle East last November to face the Mexican who has only ever been beaten by pound-for-pound star and 175lbs world champion Dmitry Bivol. Ramirez proved to be too<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-boxing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}