{"id":298692,"date":"2025-07-28T14:34:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T14:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/298692\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T14:34:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T14:34:12","slug":"cruiserweight-star-drops-bombshell-on-potential-world-title-unification-clash-later-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/298692\/","title":{"rendered":"Cruiserweight star drops bombshell on potential world title unification clash later this year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A former cruiserweight world champion has let slip that a mega-fight between two champions is looming.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chris Billam-Smith<\/a> is looking to the future after his recent win over Brandon Glanton on the Chris Eubank Jr.<\/a> vs Conor Benn<\/a> undercard.<\/p>\n

Billam-Smith and Glanton shared a heartwarming moment<\/a> at the end of their fight as both men apologized for any disrespect towards the other in the build-up to their fight.<\/p>\n

Now, 21-2, \u2018The Gentleman\u2019 is looking to regain his world title, but may have to wait for one mega-fight first.<\/p>\n

\"GilbertoPhoto by Cris Esqueda\/Golden Boy\/Getty ImagesChris Billam-Smith says Jai Opetaia vs Zurdo Ramirez will take place at the end of 2025<\/p>\n

In an interview with Seconds Out, Billam-Smith was asked about his future and when he will return to the ring.<\/p>\n

Billam-Smith won his last outing, but lost to Zurdo Ramirez<\/a> in the fight before, losing his world title.<\/p>\n

This was the second loss of Billam-Smith\u2019s career, with the only other coming against Richard Riakporhe, who Billam-Smith later beat.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cI think the champions are all tied up by the looks of things. From what I hear, Opetaia and Zurdo are looking towards the end of the year, but I\u2019m gonna be ready, you never know, one of them might pull out and they might need a replacement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jai Opetaia<\/a> has been long-requesting a unification fight with Gilberto \u2018Zurdo\u2019 Ramirez, and it seems he may finally get the chance to unify this year.<\/p>\n

Fans have been critical of Opetaia\u2019s lackluster opposition<\/a>, which he has chosen as a result of his fellow world champions refusing to fight him.<\/p>\n

Opetaia vs Zurdo would be huge for the cruiserweight division, and would leave the winner just one fight away from being undisputed, with Badou Jack being the WBC champion.<\/p>\n

Gilberto Ramirez vs Jai Opetaia could be derailed by a YouTuber<\/p>\n

Zurdo\u2019s last fight saw the Mexican champion defend his titles against Yuniel Dorticos on the undercard of Jake Paul<\/a> vs Julio Cesar Chavez Jr<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"JakePhoto by Harry How\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Paul defeated Chavez Jr. in the main event, and later called out Zurdo, claiming he\u2019s good but slow.<\/p>\n

Ramirez said he would be open to facing Jake Paul<\/a> in defense of his world titles, which is now a possibility as Paul has been given a top 15 ranking.<\/p>\n

In one of boxing\u2019s bizarre turns, it seems the one thing that could prevent the huge unification bout between Ramirez and Opetaia is a former Disney channel actor turned YouTuber turned boxer.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former cruiserweight world champion has let slip that a mega-fight between two champions is looming. Chris Billam-Smith…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,28241,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-298692","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-chris-billam-smith","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114931359144423820","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}