BN Verdict: Masternak threatens to pull the plug on Billam-Smith’s town-wide Christmas do, but the Bournemouth man averts a crisis

By Declan Taylor

IT IS strange to think there was a time when Chris Billam-Smith yearned for a big fight back in Bournemouth. It is even stranger to think that it seemed like some sort of risk.

On Saturday night at the Bournemouth International Centre, the cruiserweight and his legion of supporters proved once again that this is one of the most significant followings in world boxing right now.

Never mind that this was The One After The Big One – not quite the Lord Mayor’s Show but definitely a step back from the iconic night at the Vitality Stadium in May, when Billam-Smith stunned Lawrence Okolie under the stars. They still turned up, a couple of weeks before Christmas, in their thousands.

The truth is, they could have sold it out twice over as the last of these tickets went out weeks ago. And, to further highlight Billam-Smith’s sway in the town, this fight took place on a Sunday night so that his fans would have time to travel back from Bournemouth’s victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford on Saturday.

But there is a gap in the venue options in Billam-Smith’s home town: it’s either the BIC or the Stadium, there is no midpoint which might present a problem between September and May when the stadium is busy.

What it does mean, however, is that every fight at the BIC is packed to the rafters, like this one and it proves once again, following in the footsteps of the likes of Ricky Hatton and Josh Warrington, that harnessing a genuine connection with a football club is the key to unlocking support like this and therefore vast commercial value.

Billam-Smith is Bournemouth through and through, with years of season ticket stubs to prove it and that’s why they turn out like they do. The same can be said of Nathan Heaney in Stoke but not many other active fighters in England. But the key point here is that it will give Billam-Smith crucial pulling power in a division where there is little to choose between the big names.

“I don’t really care who it is next,” Billam Smith said afterwards, once everyone had gone home and his damaged left eye was repaired. “I care about where it is. And it has got to be down here. You cannot turn down that atmosphere.

“The atmosphere here again was phenomenal, there is not a crowd like it in British boxing at the moment. There are lots of good general fans but there is not an entire town that gets behind their fighters like this lot. So I don’t care who it is against or what other belts are on the line, just as long as it’s in Bournemouth I am a happy man.”

Billam-Smith celebrates his latest win (LAWRENCE LUSTIG/BOXXER)

Despite Billam-Smith’s insistence that Mateusz Masternak, the Polish visitor, would represent his hardest fight bar none, many of his supporters would have turned up at the venue expecting a straightforward night in this first defence of the WBO belt claimed from Okolie.

It descended, rather quickly, into anything but as Masternak, the wily old pro, threatened to pull the plug on this town-wide Christmas do. It would have also left a fly in the eggnog of Billam-Smith’s three-fight deal with Boxxer, which started here and will now likely travel past Richard Riakporhe and/or Okolie during 2024. But, it was crisis averted when Masternak, with a freshly broken rib or two, decided against emerging for the eighth round to send a wave of relief through Billam-Smith and his supporters.

Riakporhe, ringside and working for Sky Sports, would have seen the success Masternak had throughout the first half of the fight and left the venue even more confident of inflicting a second defeat on Billam-Smith. That is a fight that has grown far beyond the BIC so it would have to wait until May if they are to do it at the stadium once more, with Bournemouth’s final home game taking place on May 11. Those timings might just work.

Either way, as a world champion, and with gate receipts to prove it, Billam-Smith has earned the right to call the shots when it comes to arranging a fight like that. If they do have to head to the capital, you can bet it would be on a Saturday when Bournemouth are away at a London club, like February’s trip to Fulham or Arsenal away on May 4.

These are all logistical questions for another day and Billam-Smith has earned the right to put his feet up over Christmas with his wife and young son safe in the knowledge that he has created something special in British boxing. It started on his debut in the September of 2017 at Bournemouth’s o2 Academy, where four of his first eight fights took place.

None of his next eight, however, were taken back there and you sense that his promoters at the time, Matchroom, missed a trick. The first thing Ben Shalom and Boxxer did when they signed him was match him with Isaac Chamberlain and book the BIC. That was a classic and, now, three fights on and he is one of the best supported fighters the world over.

This Tuesday at the BIC, Madness are playing at the Bournemouth International Centre while at the weekend, Elf the Musical takes centre stage. Given what happened here on Sunday, they’re going to need a new roof.