‘After this, we will have a proper route’ – Chris Billam-Smith vows to launch world title bid with hometown victory over Isaac Chamberlain

Chris Billam-Smith’s latest charge towards a world title shot begins back where it all started this weekend.

The cruiserweight contender fights back home in Bournemouth against Isaac Chamberlain on Saturday night, headlining a card for the first time in his career.

Billam-Smith’s Commonwealth and European belts will be on the line but a greater prize awaits the winner, who will be able to position themselves among the front runners for a world title shot possibly later this year.

‘The Gentleman’ is well placed among all four of the major governing bodies in boxing but one fight at the top of the division he won’t be pursuing is against WBO champion Lawrence Okolie.

The two cruiserweights are frequent sparring partners and close friends who share a trainer in Shane McGuigan working out of their thriving gym in east London. While Okolie soon plans to move up to the heavyweight division to become a two-weight champion, the thought of the two friends meeting in the ring has never been a serious option.

‘Me and Lawrence, we got asked a few years ago about it. But we are friends now and we have both said that fight will never happen,’ Billam-Smith told Metro.co.uk.

‘We are in the same gym to start with, one of us wouldn’t have a coach in the corner. I think Lawrence’s plan is to unify and then move up. I have my own plans.’

Chamberlain seeks to wreck those plans on Saturday. The Brixton fighter is a previous opponent of Okolie’s, sharing a bitter feud with the former that culminated in their rather anticlimactic clash in 2018.

There is only so much to glean from that fight that took place over four years ago with Billam-Smith and trainer Shane McGuigan plotting the statement win that will catapult the 31-year-old ahead of his British