This is an excellent fight in the cruiser weight division and the winner should be close to a world title shot. Tommy McCarthy has rebounded well after a TKO loss to Richard Riakporhe in 2019 by winning the WBC International title on away soil in Italy, beating Bilal Laggoune for the European title and defending the European title versus Alexandru Jur. Chris Billam-Smith has also rebounded from a 2019 loss to Richard Riakporhe, in his case by split decision. He beat Craig Glover to win the commonwealth title, defended it versus Nathan Thorley and then beat Vasil Ducar for the WBA continental title.
Tommy McCarthy is the more pure boxer of the two and I would say is technically better. I also think hes much better defensively though doesn’t quite have the chin of Billam-Smith. McCarthy isn’t a big puncher for Cruiser weight and relies more on his boxing skills than power punching.
Chris Billam-Smith is more of a power puncher than a pure boxer in my opinion. His defence is severely lacking and if he didn’t have a good chin he’d have been knocked out in a few of his fights. He is clearly powerful and has fight changing power though will have to land on McCarthy consistently to make it have its full effect.
I think this fight can go either way as both are solid pro’s and have both faults and strengths. I personally feel that McCarthy will box his way to a decision victory but will have some shaky moments in the fight when Billam-Smith lands cleanly. Billam-Smith can certainly stop McCarthy if he can set his punches up well or McCarthy gets lazy even for a moment, I just believe McCarthy will be focused as this is the biggest fight of his career and he should have learn’t from his stoppage loss to Riakporhe which has some similarities style wise with this fight in my opinion.
Boxing Fulcrum 