Chris Billam-Smith doesn’t believe that Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez’s promoters Oscar De La Hoya and Bernard Hopkins have ever watched him fight – but he continues to take inspiration from Hopkins.

De La Hoya and Hopkins, of Golden Boy Promotions, will be ringside on Saturday at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where Billam-Smith and Ramirez will contest the WBO and WBA cruiserweight titles.

Not unlike the great Hopkins, the 34-year-old Billam-Smith is recognised as making the most of his abilities via his discipline and professionalism, and if he is to defeat the WBA champion on Saturday he will partly have done so because of the example Hopkins once set.

Mexico’s Ramirez, 33, fights also to win from his British opponent the WBO title and potentially the opportunity to fight Jai Opetaia in 2025. Billam-Smith regardless believes that for those around Ramirez he remains little known – which is perhaps another trait he shares with Hopkins, whose threat was so often overlooked. 

“I doubt either of them have watched me fight,” he told BoxingScene. “I genuinely don’t believe either of them have watched me fight – and I get it. They’re so long in the tooth in this sport. I’m not a big name – especially in America. So, why would they? Why would they watch me? 

“You’d think they might watch me now, but as long as the [fighters’] teams are happy they probably still haven’t watched me – and I’m sure plenty of British people in boxing probably haven’t watched much of Ramirez. That’s just the way it is. 

“He’s a big name in boxing, but he’s not a big name, big name – an A lister, as such. Oscar’s more of an A-lister celeb than [Ramirez] is, even post-career. I doubt either of them have watched me, but I’m sure I’ll earn their respect on fight night.

“I just said ‘Hello’ to Oscar, and shook Bernard’s hand – maybe after the [first] press conference. But I loved watching both of them, stylistically. 

“I had so much respect for Bernard, because him fighting – winning world titles at [over] 40 years of age, I remember thinking that that dedication that he has is something I really admired and wanted to take into my own career. Watching him adapt from ‘The Executioner’ to ‘The Alien’, and the style change – it was so clever, how he did it. Just one of those legendary fighters, really – a hall of famer who just showed so much in the ring. 

“He was always exciting to watch – you always wanted to watch Hopkins fight, even later on in his career. I just loved watching him, and how he went about his business.”

Defeat for Ramirez would prove damaging for Golden Boy in a way that it wouldn’t have shortly after De La Hoya’s and Hopkins’ retirements, but Billam-Smith – promoted by Boxxer – said: “I don’t think about it. I don’t know their business, or how it’s going or anything like that. I just focus on doing my job, which is to go out there and beat ‘Zurdo’.”