Cheavon Clarke wins by TKO in round 7

Cheavon Clarke stopped Chris Billam Smith in the seventh round at the Copper Box Arena on Saturday night, putting the former world cruiserweight champion down twice and handing him his first stoppage defeat. Referee Lee Every intervened at 1:24 with Billam Smith back on his feet but taking more right hands on the ropes. The Bournemouth man shook his head at the decision. His trainer, Shane McGuigan, was plainly unhappy too. Clarke had beaten Billam Smith twice as an amateur. It turned out that a decade and a change of gloves had done little for the loser’s prospects of settling the account.

The fight headed Zuffa Boxing’s show in Hackney Wick and was scheduled for ten rounds, with no title at stake. Billam Smith weighed 199.5 pounds and Clarke 198.8. They had first met in the 2016 national amateur final in Liverpool, where Clarke won the decision, and he beat Billam Smith again that year. Clarke went on to represent Great Britain at the Tokyo Olympics. Billam Smith had the stronger professional record. He took the WBO title from Lawrence Okolie, defended it twice and lost it on points to Gilberto Ramírez in 2024. He had since beaten Brandon Glanton and stopped Ryan Rozicki, whose corner pulled him out after seven rounds.

Clarke, 35, had a less direct route to the top of this bill. He lost successive decisions to Leonardo Mosquea and Viddal Riley, the latter costing him his British title, then got back to winning against Anthony Hollaway in December. On the Bournemouth bill where Billam Smith stopped Rozicki in June, Clarke came off the floor twice in the fourth to stop Jack Massey in the seventh. That win earned him this fight. Even so, Billam Smith, 36, went into it a clear favourite.

The opening rounds were crowded affairs. Billam Smith pressed, trying to get close enough to work the body, and there was plenty of holding once the gap closed. Clarke landed an overhand right late in the first, an early indication of where the trouble would come from. In the second, Billam Smith got through with a hook and a cross, but a clean right from Clarke drew cheers. Clarke was finding the punch as Billam Smith stepped in, then getting close enough himself to smother the reply. It made for a great deal of work and rather less clean punching.

Clarke found more room for his hands in the third. He brought a right uppercut between Billam Smith’s elbows, followed with the left hook and reached him again with a long right. Billam Smith kept pressing, and there were hooks from both men in a rough fourth, Clarke finding room for his left even at close quarters. The fight opened up in the fifth. Both used the jab more, and the extra space suited Clarke. An overhand right shook Billam Smith, who took further rights as he tried to get back into range.

The sixth was Billam Smith’s best spell. He landed hard to the body, found a short right upstairs and briefly made Clarke give ground. Clarke still caught him coming in and had a left hook of his own, but for the first time Billam Smith was putting his work together with some regularity. It made what followed all the more abrupt.

Early in the seventh, Billam Smith stepped in, and a right hand dropped him heavily, the first time he had been on the floor as a professional. He took his time getting up and was still unsteady when Every let them go. Clarke went straight after him. Billam Smith tried to get away from the ropes, but another right sent him down again. He got up a second time, and Clarke drove him back to the ropes and let his hands go. Billam Smith was upright when Every stepped in. His protest was immediate, but his legs had told their own story.

“I made a mistake, but I felt like I was winning the fight,” Billam Smith said afterwards. He gave Clarke credit for the punch and said he would welcome another meeting. Clarke paid tribute to his opponent’s record and was ready to face whoever came next. “Bring them,” he said. Clarke advances from 12 wins and two defeats to 13 wins, ten inside the distance. Billam Smith, who came in with 22 wins, 14 inside the distance, and two defeats, has now lost three times. Billam Smith had been looking towards a fight with Jai Opetaia. It is Clarke who leaves the Copper Box with his standing in the cruiserweight division improved.

I thought Billam Smith made Clarke’s best punch too easy to land. He wanted to get close and work the body, but he kept coming in on the same line. Clarke could see him coming and sling the right over the top. What I liked was what Clarke did afterwards. He could roll under the return hook and move away, or get close enough to smother it. Chris was doing the walking, but Clarke was deciding when they traded.

The right uppercut in the third told me plenty. Billam Smith had his elbows in, so Clarke sent it up between them and brought the left hook round the side. By the fifth, when they had a bit more room to jab, that overhand right was landing clean again. Chris had his best spell in the sixth when he got his feet close enough to put proper weight into the body shots. He made Clarke give ground there. The trouble was getting into that range without taking a right on the way in.

I’ve got no quarrel with Lee Every’s stoppage. Billam Smith had every right to feel aggrieved in the moment, but look at his legs after he got up the second time. He was upright and willing, with Clarke already back on him and his feet still playing catch-up. That’s a poor position to be in against a bloke who’s spent the evening finding your chin with the same hand.