Billam-Smith vs Clarke: an amateur final that split two careers
The Billam-Smith vs Clarke headliner tops the card at the Copper Box Arena in London on November 7, with Sky Sports televising. It is the first professional meeting between two fighters whose paths divided in an amateur ring.
In the 2016 final of the national championships, Clarke beat Billam-Smith — one of two amateur defeats Billam-Smith suffered against him. The result carried Clarke onto the GB squad and eventually to an Olympic Games. Billam-Smith never won the elite national title.
Billam-Smith had reached that final three years earlier and was favoured to win it in 2016. The title would have been his gateway to the Olympic programme. Instead Clarke, who had drifted away from boxing before an unheralded return, supplanted him as the country's amateur No 1.
Clarke and the celebration Billam-Smith remembers
Clarke had his hand raised after three intense rounds and danced in the ring. "I was dancing like a madman," he said. "When I think about, if I didn't win that, would I have got the opportunity to go on the national team?"
He added: "Chev Clarke was not supposed to be in the final. On the way to the final I beat all the favourites that year."
Billam-Smith's recollection is drier. "I wouldn't dance as my celebration," he said, "but he won his fight, he can celebrate how he wants."
Billam-Smith on revenge and a rebuilt style
Billam-Smith has already beaten a man who had beaten him, Richard Riakporhe, and wants the same outcome here. He argues the amateur result has limited bearing on the professional version of the matchup.
"Amateur and pro is a different sport and had I not changed enough as a pro and I was still that out-and-out boxer then this fight, and my outlook on it, would be different," he told Sky Sports. "Now I'm on the front foot punching short. It's literally the opposite."
He frames the motivation as competitive rather than tactical. "There's probably someone better at psychology than me [who can say] as to why I enjoy avenging a defeat," he said. "I've always had this inner competitive spirit where I want to win and that's what's got to me to the stage I'm at."
"I've got that in me. To then lose and then avenge it, that's a great feeling," he added. "This fight will be different because of the scenario."
Clarke's last fight and Billam-Smith's warning
Clarke rose from the canvas twice in his most recent bout to stop Jack Massey, a former European champion and world title challenger. Billam-Smith identified the speed Clarke retained while hurt as the reason the decisive right hand landed.
"With Chev he keeps the speed [when hurt] and that's why he was able to land that right hand that was the beginning of the end for Jack and that makes him a really, really dangerous fight. Really dangerous," he said.
"At the same time I believe in my own abilities but I'm very aware of the other possibilities and what could happen if I'm not on my game." He added: "I love that feeling, that fear of a big puncher can make you perform well and with Chev it's definitely that."
Clarke: 'My story is still being written'
Clarke goes in as the underdog, having watched Billam-Smith labour on small hall shows before winning British, Commonwealth, European and world titles. He sees a parallel with the amateur championships, where he was also written off.
"I think it's the same thing, the fact that people wrote me off all the way through," he said. "My story is still being written."
"Come November 7, he's got his bitterness and I've got my attitude. So you guys are in for a hell of fight."
Analysis: Viddal Riley on the cost of nine minutes
Viddal Riley, the current European champion, boxed Billam-Smith as an amateur and Clarke as a professional. His assessment is that the consequences of that amateur final outlasted its nine minutes.
"It definitely does because it has such a knock-on effect to even what your pro career journey starts off as. Chev starts his pro journey as an Olympian, getting promoted as such, A side," Riley said.
"Chris would have had to get out the mud. He had to get out the mud. It affected his life for years despite that fight being only nine minutes," he said.
"He's had that chip on his shoulder and he's done extremely well with that chip on his shoulder because he's won every belt you can win."
"Chev will also know that he needs to win to be a force to be reckoned with in the division. Otherwise he's going to be on the outskirts of the juicy fights."
The original report is by skysports.com.