Chris Billam-Smith pledges to fight on after loss to Gilberto Ramirez and wants to stay at world level

Chris Billam-Smith said he has no plans to take a backward step in his career after losing his WBO cruiserweight title to Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez.

Billam-Smith lost a violent unification fight with the WBA champion in Riyadh more than a week ago, but he’s told the BBC that he has no plans to box at anything other than world level when he continues his career.

“I was hitting him with real neat shots and just wasn’t getting any reaction from him and I was shocked at that,” said Billam-Smith, who is from Bournemouth, England. “That’s the learning curve for me and the team, we thought I’d be able to get to him and hurt him but it wasn’t to be. I’ve never hit someone that clean and not got a reaction, he’d then fire back within five seconds with three or four big punches which was very disheartening.”

Billam-Smith, 20-2 (13 KOs), was cut early in the fight, suffered damage to a rib and hurt both hands through the hard 12 rounds he shared with “Zurdo.”

The former champion told BBC Sport of the pain he felt after the fight, and that he could not move around the hospital unaided afterwards. Even morphine didn’t stop the pain.

He said he hoped his next fight would be either an eliminator for a world title, or a title fight.

Jai Opetaia returns in January against Huseyin Cinkara, and it is likely – should he win – the IBF champion from Australia will meet the Mexican Ramirez for three belts.

“But I’ve got a couple more years left,” said Billam-Smith, 34, who said he didn’t want to call it a day on the back of the defeat. “I’m not thinking about retiring now.”