Billam-Smith stopped as Clarke repeats amateur win

Published4 minutes ago

Former cruiserweight world champion Chris Billam-Smith was knocked down and stopped for the first time in his career as Chev Clarke won their all-British non-title fight on Saturday.

Londoner Clarke landed a big right hand at the start of the seventh round and although Billam-Smith beat the count, he was down again moments later after a barrage of punches.

The contest was allowed to continue but the Bournemouth fighter looked unsteady on his legs and when Clarke connected with two more blows, the referee stepped in.

Billam-Smith immediately protested against the decision, while Clarke stood in the middle of the ring shrugging his shoulders.

Clarke moves to 13 wins with two defeats and inflicts the third professional defeat for Billam-Smith who also lost to Gilberto Ramirez in 2024 and Richard Riakporhe in 2019.

"I do what champions do," said Clarke, who also beat Billam-Smith when they met in the amateur ranks a decade ago.

"I'm happy. Arsenal won and I won. My training camp was good and you saw that in the ring. I'll take all-comers going forward."

The likes of heavyweight Johnny Fisher, Traitors star King Kenny and strongman Eddie Hall were all spotted watching on from ringside in a Copper Box arena that was far from full, with just the lower tier of seats open for fans.

After a slow start to the contest with lots of holding, Clarke looked the sharper man as he landed some clean shots on the former world champion.

In the second round, the Londoner landed a big overhand right to the side of Billam-Smith's head. Clarke also connected in the third round with a big uppercut and an overhand right that snapped back Billam-Smith's head.

The former world champion, struggling to find his rhythm, was caught by another uppercut before Billam-Smith responded with a short right hook that made Clarke stumble back to his corner.

But in the seventh round Clarke broke Billam-Smith down, scoring two quick knockdowns before the referee intervened.

Fight promoter Dana White said after the fight that he felt the decision to stop the fight might have been a little premature.

Bentley beats bloodied Mosley Jr and calls out Benn

In the main support bout, Britain's Denzel Bentley beat a bloodied and brave Shane Mosley Jr, out-classing the American to win via a unanimous points decision.

Bentley scored a big knockdown in the second round, landing a straight right hand that made Mosley stagger backwards before following up with another right hand that dropped him to the canvas.

Mosley survived the count and the rest of the round but was routinely tagged by Bentley throughout the contest.

The Londonder landed sharp shots off the back foot and in the fifth round drew blood over the right eye of Mosley.

Bentley ended the fight strongly, boxing at times with his hands down and moving round his opponent as he landed eye-catching shots that attracted applause from the fans.

After 10 rounds the scorecards read 96-94 96-93 95-94 in Bentley's favour, with the 31-year-old then pointing at Conor Benn in the audience and suggesting a potential future match-up between the two.

Bentley was stripped of his WBO middleweight title in late October having agreed to fight Mosley instead of face his mandatory challenger.

His interim title was previously elevated to a full world championship belt following Janibek Alimkhanuly's decision to move up to super-middleweight.

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