At around half past two in the morning following his fight with Gilberto Ramirez, Chris Billam-Smith was lying on a hospital bed, morphine dripping into his arm, a fresh wound above his eye requiring somewhere between 25 and 30 stitches – some internal, some external.
He hadn’t eaten, hadn’t drunk a drop of water, and hadn’t slept since walking to the ring almost 12 hours earlier. But despite the physical and emotional pain, Billam-Smith insists he would do it all again.
In fact, he’s ready to push his body to new levels on Saturday night when he looks to bounce back against Brandon Glanton on the undercard of the Chris Eubank Jr vs Conor Benn fight.
When speaking to Mail Sport in camp ahead of his bout, Billam-Smith recalled the harrowing aftermath of his fight in Riyadh – a loss he’s still trying to forget. He spoke candidly of the six-hour hospital trip that followed, detailing the intense isolation and despair he felt, but insisted the experience has only added fuel to his fire.
‘I spent six hours in hospital after the fight,’ Billam-Smith recalls, his voice tinged with a mixture of exhaustion and resolve. ‘From the ring, straight to the medical tent, onto a stretcher, and then into the back of an ambulance. They checked me over and did a drug test while I was on the stretcher. Then, when I finally got to the hospital, I had to wait even longer.’
The sense of isolation was overwhelming. ‘I was lying in that bed, and my whole team was next door in another room. I could hear them all eating and laughing while I was alone, just sitting there.’
Chris Billam-Smith will return to the ring on Saturday to face Brandon Glanton tomorrow night
Tensions boiled over between the cruiserweight stars during Thursday’s press conference
Billam-Smith is looking to bounce back from his defeat to Gilberto Ramirez in Saudi Arabia
The 34-year-old cruiserweight went on to add: ‘I kept asking, ‘Can I just be in that room with them?’ But the nurse kept saying, ‘Just five minutes,’ and it was never five minutes.’
By the time Billam-Smith was taken in for surgery to stitch up the nasty cut above his eye, it was the early hours of the morning. The wound was a deep one, requiring a mix of internal and external stitches.
‘The cut was nasty,’ he admits. ‘They put between 25 and 30 stitches in my eye – some internal, some external. I’d been on morphine for the pain and hadn’t eaten or drunk anything since the fight. At this point, it was about seven in the morning, and I hadn’t slept at all. I’d just spent hours on my own, and that’s when it hit me hardest.’
The emotional weight of the moment wasn’t just physical. ‘I was sitting there, just thinking about everything – about the loss, about what went wrong.
‘It’s hard not to go down a mental rabbit hole in a moment like that. I was alone, in pain, and it felt like everything had collapsed in on me. I was drained. Physically and emotionally.’
Despite the overwhelming isolation and frustration, Billam-Smith insists that the experience strengthened his resolve. ‘When I got home, I had a few days of sleep, and then I started to process everything properly.
‘You can’t hide from the loss, but you also can’t wallow in it. I know what I need to improve, and I’m hungry to show that I’ve learned from it. I’m more determined than ever.’
Now, with his focus fully on the fight against Glanton, Billam-Smith is determined to make a statement. ‘Saturday is about redemption, but it’s also about stealing the show.
When speaking to Mail Sport in camp ahead of his bout, Billam-Smith recalled the harrowing aftermath of his fight in Riyadh – a loss he’s still trying to forget
Boxing trainer Shane McGuigan (above) will be in Billam-Smith’s corner again on Saturday
‘When you’re on a card like this, with Eubank and Benn, you’ve got to put on a performance. If you can steal the spotlight from a fight that’s had that much build-up, you’re doing something right.’
And while Billam-Smith is clear that the ultimate goal is to win, he also knows that looking good doing so is just as important. ‘I want to put on a world-class performance.
‘Ideally, we get rid of Glanton early and make it look easy. But I’m not looking past him. He’s dangerous, and I have to be sharp. This is my opportunity to show everyone I’m back at the top level.’
Billam-Smith has no intention of allowing the setbacks of his past to define him. ‘That loss to Ramirez? It’s behind me. It was tough, but it made me stronger. Now I’ve got a bigger fire to prove myself all over again. I’m ready to show what I’m made of.’
