32-year-old British heavyweight Chris Billam-Smith (17-1, 12 KOs), nicknamed “The Gentleman”, expressed a desire to fight against the Russian ex-world champion in the category below Sergey Kovalev (35-4-1, 29 KOs).
Recall that the 39-year-old Kovalev made his debut in the cruiserweight (up to 90.7 kg) in May last year, defeating Bulgarian Tervel Pulev on points, and has not competed since. For Sergey, this was the first entry into the ring since November 2019.
“There was talk in the past about our fight with Kovalev, who in the last fight got a good victory over Tervel Pulev,” says Billam-Smith. “I don’t know about his cruiserweight plans, but he has a big name and is well known in the UK for his fights against Nathan Cleverley and Anthony Yarde.”
“I think it would be a stadium fight, and I would be ready for it,” continued the Briton. – My main goal remains the fight against the winner of the Opetai-Masternak fight, but in boxing you can’t think ahead. I will be ready to adapt to any development of events.
Let’s add that Chris suffered the only defeat in the pro-firing in 2019 from compatriot and top-prospect of the division Richard Riakpore. Since then, he has won eight victories, which brought him the titles of British and British Commonwealth, as well as European champions according to the EBU.
In June last year, it was reported that Kovalev was not paid for the fight with Pulev.