Carl Froch, has laid out his prediction ahead of this weekend’s all-British cruiserweight world title fight between Lawrence Okolie and Chris Billam-Smith.
Billam-Smith has landed the fight of his dreams as he challenges for world honours for the first time in his career in his hometown and at the stadium of his beloved AFC Bournemouth.
However, ‘The Gentleman’ will go into the fight as the underdog, looking to defeat unbeaten WBO champion and former stablemate, Okolie.
‘The Sauce’ was a training partner of Billam-Smith just a few months ago, but has since ditched the Shane McGuigan team and moved to the SugarHill Steward clan.
Okolie will be hoping that Steward can encourage a more aggressive ‘Kronk’ style of fighting, although that was not the case in their first fight together, where the former Olympian cruised to a comfortable unanimous-decision victory against David Light.
In an interview with TalkSPORT, the former super-middleweight champion, explained why he gives Lawrence Okolie the edge in a messy affair, but did say he hoped he was wrong.
“I just think that Okolie is probably going to be too big and that it is going to be an awkward, messy fight and he will probably maul Chris Billam-Smith. Get close to him, make it awkward, make it messy and he will probably win on points.”
“Chris Billam-Smith, for me, lacks punching power at cruiserweight, which is what you need to keep Okolie off of you and have that equaliser. I don’t think that he has got that equaliser.
I hope I’m wrong. Both guys are great, they’re good for the sport. I think it’s going to be a fantastic fight, but if I am sticking some money down on it, I’ve got Okolie to win this one.”
Okolie and Billam-Smith will fight on Saturday night in Bournemouth, live on Sky Sports.
