Chris Billam Smith eyes Fabio Turchi defence next

Chris Billam-Smith

EUROPEAN cruiserweight champion Chris Billam Smith is expecting to box on Conor Bennโ€™s April undercard in a mandatory defence against Italyโ€™s Fabio Turchi.

โ€œHeโ€™s quite tough. Can be a bit wild at times, a southpaw obviously. Tommy McCarthy had quite a close fight with him. Short, stocky, looks quite strong. I think itโ€™s a good fight for me,โ€ Billam Smith said of Turchi.

Billam Smith was also the British champion, but had to vacate that belt, unable to box both the mandatory for that title and the European mandatory in time. โ€œItโ€™s a nice problem to have in a way, various different mandatories for various different belts,โ€ he said. โ€œI was gutted about it but I need to keep the European and Iโ€™ve got a mandatory for that, itโ€™s helps with my world rankings. It makes business sense and thatโ€™s what the team around me are there for.

โ€œFor me itโ€™s just about taking the right fights, getting up to world level and keep progressing.โ€

A good win over Turchi would set him up for an active year. โ€œWeโ€™ve got this fight in April then we need to have a sit down and plan the route after that towards world level and see whatโ€™s next and decide what we want to do as a team,โ€ Chris said. โ€œI want to fight in Bournemouth. Iโ€™d love to do that after this one, whoever it may be. Iโ€™d love to fight back home. I think the show would do really well down there. People are always asking me whenโ€™s a show coming down there etc. Iโ€™d love to do that. In terms of actual titles, look at this defence and see where weโ€™re at and see whatโ€™s going on with the world titles and then look towards an eliminator towards the end of the year. But you never know. Opportunities might come up in the meantime and we might have to take them. But like I said, sit down with the team, with Jake and Shane McGuigan, with Eddie [Hearn] and see what the best thing to do is.โ€

Billam Smithโ€™s gym-mate Lawrence Okolie holds one of the four major belts and is boxing on February 27, but otherwise itโ€™s unclear what the other cruiserweight belt-holders will be doing. โ€œItโ€™s something weโ€™ve got to look at and see if any of the champions will be available to fight or have mandatories etc. There seems to be lots of talk going on at the moment of various different belts,โ€ he said. โ€œWhether itโ€™s their mandatories, [Arsen] Goulamirian was meant to fight [Alexey] Egorov a number of times, still hasnโ€™t and he was his mandatory so Iโ€™m not sure whatโ€™s going on there. Itโ€™s just wait and see whatโ€™s going and if they are tied up, then keep getting meaningful fights that are going to progress my career.โ€

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