“The Opetaia fight, I have no idea what’s going on with him, but that was one that we’re up for. I’m not sure what the plan is there. I haven’t heard anything,” said Billiam-Smith to Sky Sports Boxing.
“I’m not going to wait around. I want to be out again this year. Whether that’s October, November, December time, they’re the dates I’m looking at.”
Billam-Smith (22-2, 14 KOs) returned to winning form in June with a seventh-round stoppage of Ryan Rozicki after an action-packed contest that saw both men exchange heavy shots from the opening bell before Rozicki’s corner halted the fight.
Despite the punishment dished out in the bout, Billam-Smith said his recovery has gone smoothly and believes the contest looked more damaging than it actually was from the outside.
“It was definitely a lot less brutal for me. A lot of the shots I was riding,” said Billiam-Smith.
“I have got some decent moves and head movement and defensive work, which was definitely needed in that fight. I think if I didn’t have that, it could have been a different outcome.”
Billam-Smith even joked that the cut he suffered has already healed, crediting himself with having “Wolverine skin.”
Looking back on the fight, he also praised Rozicki’s durability after the Canadian survived a heavy uppercut in the third round that appeared close to ending the contest.
“In the third round I hit him with that uppercut, and he looked like he was going down and somehow stayed up and 10 seconds later was throwing punches back,” said Billiam-Smith.
“I thought at some point in the next few rounds I would get to him. There’s only so much a human can take.”
An Opetaia fight remains one of the biggest fights available in the cruiserweight division, but Billam-Smith’s comments make clear he is unwilling to delay his own career if negotiations fail to materialize. Instead, the 35-year-old intends to return before the end of the year while waiting for an opportunity to challenge the division’s leading champion.
