Richard Riakporhe never considered defeat. But he suffered a painful loss when challenging Chris Billam-Smith for the WBO cruiserweight title on Saturday.
This setback will be all the more difficult for him to deal with as the defeat he never expected to suffer occurred in front of his home fans at Crystal Palace’s Selhurst Park stadium.
Billam-Smith used all his experience to secure a clear and unanimous victory, but this was the Londoner’s first world championship fight and he will learn from it.
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Andy Scott and John Dennen give their verdict on Chris Billam-Smith’s victory over Richard Riakporhe and question how far he can go in the sport.
When Riakporhe returns, he will have several options. He remains a big physical cruiserweight and is a renowned power puncher.
In fact, Riakporhe is so big he could definitely make weight and if he leaves the division he has a ready rival in Hackney’s Lawrence Okolie.
The two already have a feud, which includes a past altercation at a movie premiere.
Okolie held the WBO cruiserweight title and lost it to Billam-Smith last year. He then joined the new “bridgeweight” division, a 224-pound weight class that is only recognized by the WBC and WBA.
Even before boxing Billam-Smith, Riakporhe felt he could overtake the division.
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Chris Billam-Smith defended his WBO cruiserweight world title against Richard Riakporhe with a unanimous decision victory at Selhurst Park.
“There is a bridge weight now,” he said Aerial sports speculating about its future.
“The WBA has bridge weights and there’s the WBC. Okolie is also the champion, so that’s even more fights, and then we have the heavyweights, which is pretty much the same thing. (Oleksandr) Usyk is at Pretty much a bridge weight, (Deontay) Wilder was a bridge weight.”
Okolie knocked out the WBC champion in that weight class, Lukasz Rozanski, beating him in a single round in the Pole’s hometown of Rzeszow to win the belt.
Riakporhe praised this performance. “He did really well and I congratulate him. I was happy for him too because I heard he had been through a lot. Even when he was fighting with Chris Billam-Smith, a lot of people didn’t don’t know,” he said. “There was a lot going on.
“That’s what we want,” he added. “I wouldn’t want to fight a half-pint Okolie.”
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Billam-Smith wants to fight in America and is aiming for a unification of Gilberto Ramirez’s world title after Richard Riakporhe’s triumph at Selhurst Park.
Renewing this rivalry was certainly a goal for him, however.
“I would like that,” Riakporhe said. “I would really like that. I think it would be great for London. East versus South. The preparation would be crazy and a lot of people want to see that fight.
“When Okolie came up, I was looking at the comments on social media and everyone was upset. Why? Because they wanted to see me against Okolie. We can revive that.”
