Chris Billam-Smith wins hard-fought clash against Brandon Glanton

Chris Billam-Smith doesn’t do easy fights, but he does do winning.

He scored the 21st win of his 23-fight career after 12 rough-and-rugged rounds with American puncher Brandon Glanton.

They met in the show opener at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, walking to the ring at around 5.20pm in the late afternoon sun, and it was an exhausting, draining fight, but ultimately one that again illustrated that Billam-Smith is one of the best cruiserweights in the world.

The 34-year-old “Gentleman”, as the Bournemouth puncher is known, improved to 21-2 (13 KOs), but Glanton was well in the fight for the first two thirds before Billam-Smith’s pedigree and experience at a higher level started to tell.

Glanton, 20-3 (17 KOs), from Atlanta and a touch younger at 33, gave it a great shot, but as the fight wore on the gap between them started to tell. The scorecards of 116-113, 116-112 and 116-112 seemed accurate.

They battled hard from the opening bell. Both showed variety and ambition in the opening round, working their way inside and hammering away with hooks and uppercuts in close, pushing one another off and letting their hands go again. Billam-Smith cracked Glanton with some good right hands, but Glanton looked unfazed.

Billam-Smith’s face started to mark up in round two. Glanton was having plenty of success and they shared left hooks and Billam-Smith clattered a right hook into the American’s side at the bell.

Billam-Smith’s stablemates Caroline Dubois and Adam Azim cheered their man on from ringside, and as he buried two more rights into Glanton’s side, “Bulletproof” battled back still.

The American was applying pressure and marching through some hefty shots. He also walloped Billam-Smith with a left hook before the bell to close the third.

Neither looked uncomfortable or even keen to deviate from how the fight was unfolding. Glanton’s jab got working in the fourth – singles and doubles – and he looked at ease after Billam-Smith hit him to the body with both hands.

Near the end of the fifth, Billam-Smith connected with some quality work but got clipped by a left hook-uppercut that jarred his head back.

Glanton touched down after a slip in the fifth, but he maintained his pace and work-rate, with Billam-Smith’s back to the ropes. The former champion landed a good right uppercut in the sixth and moments later, finally, it seemed like a right hook had an effect and rocked the visitor.

With long-time trainer Shane McGuigan advising him between rounds, and McGuigan’s hall-of-fame inductee father, Barry, screaming his support nearby, Billam-Smith started the seventh well, smashing away with both hands – and Glanton again slipped to the deck, possibly caused by a commercial on the ring canvas.

At this point in fights, Billam-Smith is often breathing hard and starting to look worse for wear, and that was the case again as he tried to deter his game opponent.

McGuigan advised his fighter to vary his jab, but he also felt Billam-Smith was starting to break Glanton down.

Billam-Smith kept his own work-rate up, too; landing heavy shots with each hand, and Glanton’s punch output appeared to be dipping.

Glanton’s corner asked him to fight “like he was doing earlier” ahead off the ninth but Billam-Smith kept chipping away, was becoming the aggressor, and no longer spending so much time on the ropes.

Glanton’s feet started to slow and his attacks had a more one-dimensional attack about them – and Billam-Smith made him miss by a distance with some uncouth swings. That was the case in the 10th, with Billam-Smith looking far more relaxed as he adapted to become more boxer than puncher.

That pattern stayed in place for the next two rounds, with Billam-Smith remaining a step ahead and boxing well against an opponent who had represented real danger if CBS had been at anything but his best.

Billam-Smith is on a run of hard fights. Having won the WBO title from Lawrence Okolie, he defended against Mateusz Masternak on a tough night and then fought Richard Riakporhe but lost the belt to Gilbert Ramirez in a unification contest – Ramirez held the WBA title – in October in Saudi Arabia.

Glanton and Billam-Smith were vying for the right to challenge the winner of the WBC title fight between champion Badou Jack and champion-in-recess Noel Mikaelian, who meet on May 3 on the bill topped by Saul "Canelo" Alvarez-William Scull. 

Earlier in the week, Glanton had apologized, having said he hoped he would inflict brain damage on the likeable Englishman.

Whatever differences there had been beforehand, they talked at the bell and embraced, blood seeping from a wound by Billam-Smith’s left eye and both boxers clearly shattered.