Chris Billam-Smith weighs in with ‘surprise factor’ threat for Gilberto Ramirez unification clash

Chris Billam-Smith and Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez both made weight for Saturday’s cruiserweight world championship unification.

Billam-Smith was 199.4lbs, with Ramirez scaling 199.6lbs.

They fight for the former’s WBO title and the latter’s WBA belt on Saturday, live on Sky Sports.

Britain’s Billam-Smith strode onto the weigh in stage looking cheerful. But turned a wide-eyed glare on Ramirez for their final face-off. Ramirez smiled faintly, and turned away first.

“Nobody in this division can live with my intensity,” Billam-Smith declared.

He vowed all he had to do was “be me” and “tomorrow night we get to unify the cruiserweight division”.

Ramirez spoked calmly afterwards. “I feel great, I feel ready,” he said. “It’s time to enjoy Saturday night.

“Confidence, preparation and that’s all.”

Billam-Smith has warned his rival champion that he will be pressing for a knockout win.

“I believe I can take him out in the second half of the fight, I really do,” Billam-Smith told Sky Sports.

“But we’ll see. Things can happen on fight night. Lots can happen in a boxing ring and in the moment. He might be more durable than we think. He is super durable but I do believe in my intensity.

“It will take a lot to get rid of him but I believe I can do it.”

Ramirez was slightly heavier than Billam-Smith at the weigh-in but over the course of his career the Mexican star has risen through several weight classes to become a two-division champion.

“He looked in good shape,” Shane McGuigan, Billam-Smith’s trainer, said of Ramirez.

But McGuigan added: “[Billam-Smith] will be rehydrating and a big guy in there. I think he’s the bigger guy of the two. Obviously Zurdo started at super-middleweight in his career. But I don’t know how he ever made that limit. So he’s let his body swell up over the years.

“We’re not looking at small advantages at this stage, we’re looking at the bigger picture and we’ve completed everything in training camp and we’re ready to go. I think he’s in the shape of his life.

“Chris is the slightly older guy but out of the two of them he’s the fresher guy, he’s had less fights, he’s at his natural weight.”

He shares Billam-Smith’s confidence that the Briton can win by stoppage.

“I think it’s going to be a tricky fight early on but once Chris starts to get his momentum and starts picking the pace up – Zurdo’s last fight against [Arsen] Goulamirian, it was very one-paced.

“Goulamirian hurt him a few times but never had that change of pace and those gears. Whereas Chris is one of the fittest guys at 200lbs and he really can ramp the pace up and he really can change that speed on people,” McGuigan told Sky Sports News.

“I think that might be a surprise factor for Zurdo.”

Billam-Smith and Ramirez box in Riyadh, on what might be considered neutral territory. But McGuigan doesn’t see it that way. The event is billed as ‘Latino Night’ and is staged by Golden Boy, Ramirez’s promoter.

“We’re very confident,” McGuigan said. “This is different, it’s away from home. We’re in a different environment with a different promotion. But they’ve treated us very, very well since we’ve been out here and we have all the facilities we need to get to the weight. The next thing in line is just to go out there and put on a good show.

However he added: “But we also know that we’re on an away show and even though there’s two champions, if it gets close you never know how the judges are going to be seeing it so we have to do that little bit extra and I think Chris will be going out there for the stoppage.

“We are going to go out there and have to make a statement. We can’t let this fight get close.”

Watch Chris Billam-Smith’s world title unification with Gilberto Ramirez on Saturday live on Sky Sports Mix from 5pm