“The Opetaia fight, I don’t know what’s happening with him, but that was one which we’re up for. I’m undecided what the plan is there. I haven’t heard anything,” said Billiam-Smith to Sky Sports Boxing.
“I’m not going to attend around. I would like to be out again this 12 months. Whether that’s October, November, December time, they’re the dates I’m taking a look 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 each men exchange heavy shots from the opening bell before Rozicki’s corner halted the fight.
Despite the punishment dished out within the bout, Billam-Smith said his recovery has gone easily and believes the competition looked more damaging than it actually was from the skin.
“It was definitely so much less brutal for me. Plenty of the shots I used to be riding,” said Billiam-Smith.
“I even have got some decent moves and head movement and defensive work, which was definitely needed in that fight. I feel if I didn’t have that, it might have been a distinct final result.”
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 within the third round that appeared near ending the competition.
“Within the third round I hit him with that uppercut, and he looked like he was happening and in some way stayed up and 10 seconds later was throwing punches back,” said Billiam-Smith.
“I believed in some unspecified time in the future in the subsequent few rounds I might get to him. There’s only a lot a human can take.”
An Opetaia fight stays one in every of the largest fights available within the cruiserweight division, but Billam-Smith’s comments clarify he’s unwilling to delay his own profession if negotiations fail to materialize. As an alternative, the 35-year-old intends to return before the tip of the 12 months while waiting for a possibility to challenge the division’s leading champion.