By Ray Wheatley – World of Boxing
IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia (22-0, 17 KOs) could be making his first defense of the championship against IBF #3 cruiserweight Chris Billam-Smith (16-1, 11 KOs), who defeated IBF #8 Isaac Chamberlain on Saturday. Opetaia’s promoter Dean Lonergan was interviewed at ringside about the possibility of the newly crowned world champion defending in England.
“Both these guys make a very good opponent for Jai in the very near future,” said Lonergan. “I imagine Jai is watching this fight and fascinated to hear the outcome. At the end of the day, we don’t have a mandatory and can pick whoever we want to fight – and I’m really impressed on what I’ve seen tonight.
“If everything works, we would come up here in a heartbeat…we are talking to the right people so let’s see what happens.”
This works for me! I heard CBS was good friends/training partners with Okolie, despite the fact that he’s probably about to be his mandatory, so they probably won’t fight each other. So he probably needs to focus on one of the other champions.
What “impressed” Opetaia was seeing a totally beatable character in CBS and knowing the bigger bucks are in England. I would be “impressed” too.