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Chris Billam-Smith Vs Isaac Chamberlain: Result, Fight Report And Video Highlights

Written by Elliot Foster on 31st July 2022.

Chris Billam-Smith Won On Home Territory Against Chamberlain

Chris Billam-Smith will now be looking towards world honours after keeping hold of his belts.

The Bournemouth cruiserweight boxed at home for the first time, at the Bournemouth International Centre, as he outpointed Isaac Chamberlain in a gruelling 12-round affair, exclusively live on Sky Sports.

Billam-Smith, trained by Shane McGuigan, held the European and Commonwealth championships going into the fight and he left the arena on Saturday night with the titles after all three judges called the contest in his favour by margins of 117-111.

Chamberlain was landing solid jabs in the first round, seemingly getting the upper hand in the opening exchanges as both fighters looked to assert their dominance.

Once Billam-Smith pressed him against the ropes, they were trading big punches on and off, but the hometown hero was able to stun Chamberlain on the ropes and was forcing a firefight.

It was very tit-for-tat, with ‘IC’ – who had moved up to Birmingham to prepare for this fight and had experienced fight figure Jon Pegg in his corner – rocking ‘The Gentleman’ with a hard counter.

After a breathless opening couple, Chamberlain was picking his shots, but he was being forced to engage in a fire-fight as Billam-Smith was walking him down at times and throwing big shots. Billam-Smith was pressing forward and doing a lot of damage.

Chamberlain seemed to recover in the fourth, by working his jab and using distance to connect better. In the fifth, both were jabbing and targeting the body in very close action. Billam-Smith had the edge, with the harder punches, in the sixth of a close round.

The seventh, eighth and ninth rounds were the rounds that saw the champion pull away, but Chamberlain, bleeding heavily from the left eye, rallied late o, trying everything to find a big shot to end proceedings.

As it was, the bell went and it was Billam-Smith who was victorious.

Watch the final moments below courtesy of Sky Sports Boxing:

On the same card, Ben Whittaker produced the fireworks and a fair bit of dazzle on his debut as he knocked out Greg O’Neill in the second round of their light-heavyweight fight.

The Sugarhill Steward-trained Olympian, who won silver in Tokyo before being involved in a signature battle between all the top promoters, inked a lucrative deal with Boxxer and Sky Sports.

Whittaker had it pretty much all his own way, evading shots from O’Neil, landing hard to body and head, winding up his uppercuts and then ducking the replies before showboating to the crowd.

A sharp overhand right crashed into the side of O’Neill’s head and sent him backwards in what was the first shot of the second round. O’Neill tried to rise but laid back down, as referee Mark Lyson, from Liverpool, counted him out after 21 seconds of the second.

You can watch full fight highlights below:

Meanwhile, Frazer Clarke returned to the ring with a two-round stoppage of Ariel Esteban Bracamonte.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist had been out since his debut in February after suffering a thumb injury.

Clarke boxed well, keeping Bracamonte on the end of his jab and forcing the Argentine, who took Jarrell Miller the distance recently while also having been in with heavyweight favourite David Allen, to slow.

Then, after picking up a warning, ‘Big Fraze’ picked up the pace and dropped Bracamonte with a left hook. He got to his feet but the referee John Latham called it. Two minutes and 57 seconds of the second round was the official time of the fight scheduled for six.

And Caroline Dubois used her opponent as relative target practice as she moved to 3-0 with a third-round stoppage.

She battered Tanzania’s Happy Daudi around the ring in the first round but was unable to get her down until the third. She was caught by a left hook and then bundled Daudi over before the referee Latham intervened after 46 seconds, while Hassan Azim was forced to go the distance against Jamie Quinn, despite looking like he was going to get an early finish. The referee handed him a 59-55 verdict.