Fluorescent Adolescent
I REMEMBER I was sat at some random car park. I think it was the week of my debut; what car would I have been in then? I think it was a Ford Fiesta. Or it might have been a Vauxhall Astra, I had an old estate that I got from my brother. I’d just done the press conference to announce that I’d signed with Cyclone Promotions. That was my first proper interview.”
Plenty has changed since the first time I’d spoken with Bournemouth’s Chris Billam-Smith, 15-1 (11), back in September 2017. He drives neither of those two vehicles anymore, although they proved their (diminishing) worth in the early days of his professional career, carting him to and from Shane McGuigan’s gym to spar David Haye, or to announce himself to boxing’s media at that press conference as an unassuming, unfashionably polite addition at cruiserweight. “The Gentleman” moniker has certainly stuck.
Back then, Billam-Smith was the newest addition to McGuigan’s small, trusted stable, and was something of a gamble, a wild card. Now, he’s the longest-serving member of an impressive team bursting at the seams with talent, and he is respected by the gym’s experienced champions and its electrifying prospects in equal
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