1 week Ago
‘The Gentleman’ will be hoping to add the cruiserweight WBA title to his WBO title as he faces Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez on Saturday night in a unification bout. It is Billam-Smith’s first professional fight abroad, taking place in Saudi Arabia, after he won the world title at the Vitality Stadium against Lawrence Okolie in May 2023. He has held the title ever since – defending it first against Mateusz Masternak in December at the International Centre, before defeating Richard Riakporhe in his own back yard at Selhurst Park in south London in June.
But with the fight happening at The Venue in Riyadh, many fans won’t be able to travel to watch it live – so here’s our guide to the fight and how to follow along. Billam-Smith holds a record of 20-1 with 13 KOs, with the 34-year-old’s solitary defeat coming to Riakporhe in 2019. But the Bournemouth boxer put that record to bed with his defeat of the south Londoner in June, stopping the Crystal Palace fan’s hopes of securing his first world title in front of his home crowd.
His opponent in ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez has a record of 46-1 with 30 KOs across his career. Ramirez is returning to the Middle East for the first time since his sole defeat in his career, when he was beaten in 2022 by Dmitry Divol in Abu Dhabi. The Mexican was unsuccessful on that occasion in his quest to add the WBA super light heavyweight title to his record, but he claimed the crown by beating Arsen Goulamirian in May.
This is only southpaw Ramirez’s second fight outside of North America and the cruiserweight title made him a two-weight world champion, previously holding the WBO super middleweight title. Both fighters are similar physically, with an identical reach of 75”, although Zurdo is half an inch taller than Billam-Smith. Billam-Smith is hoping to become the first Brit to unify the cruiserweight division since David Haye in 2008.
The card for the event features a total of five fights before the main event of Billam-Smith vs Ramirez: • Jose Carlos Ramirez vs. Arnold Barbosa Jr.; Super lightweight • Oscar Collazo vs.
Thammanoon Niyomtrong; For Collazo's WBO minimumweight title • Wiliam Zepeda Segura vs. Tevin Farmer; Lightweight • Oscar Duarte Jurado vs. Botirzhon Akhmedov; Super lightweight The card begins at 5pm, with the ring walks for the main event expected at 10pm UK time.
There will be an open workout shown live on DAZN on Wednesday, before a press conference on Thursday and the weigh-in on Friday. The Daily Echo will be bringing live text coverage of the fight on Saturday night from around 9.30pm.
The fight will be broadcast on DAZN – with those with a subscription able to watch it for no extra cost. It will also be shown on Sky Sports Mix..
