The bruised and battered-looking former WBO cruiserweight champion Chris Billiam-Smith (21-2, 13 KOs) outfought the tough American Brandon Glanton (20-3, 13 KOs), defeating him by a 12-round unanimous decision in a contest that appeared razor-close at the end on Saturday night at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. This fight should have been the co-feature on tonight’s card because, on paper, it was a better fight than the others.
(Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom)
Early Onslaught
Glanton, 33, stayed on top of Billiam-Smith early in the fight, connecting with short punches to the head and body of the former champion. The physical strength of Glanton bothered Billiam-Smith, as he wasn’t strong enough to deal with his wrestling tactics.
As early as the first round, Chris looked exhausted, like he’d gone an entire fight, and his eyes were showing swelling from the hard punches. I had Glanton up 4-2 after six rounds. He was beating the stuffing out of Billiam-Smith and not allowing him to land the way he wanted.
The scores were 116-113, 116-112, and 116-112. I had it for Billiam-Smith 115-113. He won but just barely. Glanton’s pressure and hard punches were a pure nightmare for him, especially in the 12th round when he was going for the knockout. He had the former champ on the run, trying to survive.
In the fifth, Glanton was tagged with a right that whiplashed his head around. It looked like he was in danger of going down, but he stayed up somehow. Billiam-Smith came back strong in round six, nailing Glanton with a right hand, causing him to lose his footing for a second. It’s unclear if that was from the punch or the slippery ring. Either way, it was a hard shot that Billiam-Smith had hit him with.
Billiam-Smith looked like he got the better of the action in rounds 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11. Glanton took most of the first six and then came back strong in round twelve, landing the much harder shots against a tired-looking Billiam-Smith.
Not Convincing
This was not the kind of performance that Billiam-Smith needed to show that he’s come back from his loss to Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez last November. He looked like he was on his way to being knocked out by Glanton early tonight, and again, he appeared to have lost most of the first six.