BBC Radio 5 Live’s Boxing podcast with Steve Bunce back on the road

BBC Radio 5 Live’s Boxing podcast with Steve Bunce will be in Bournemouth on 12 September.

Steve’s guest will be Bournemouth’s own World Cruiserweight champion, Chris Billam-Smith.

This special live show will be held at The Vitality Stadium – the home of AFC Bournemouth – where Chris won his WBO world title last year against the then undefeated champion, Lawrence Okolie.

Chris is synonymous with his hometown and is a lifelong AFC Bournemouth fan. He has fought regularly in front of his home fans and this event will be another homecoming for the man they call ‘The Gentleman’.

Steve Bunce said: “If you ask people in Bournemouth, do you know Chris Billam-Smith, not only will they say, ‘yeah the boxer’, they’ll tell you the Chris Billam-Smith story.

“They saw him shopping, they saw him in the market, they saw him buying his kids candyfloss, they’ve seen him fight, they’ve met him in the bar afterwards, they met him in a train station when he was coming back from a press conference. They know all about him. Now that’s really rare.”

Billiam-Smith will join Steve to discuss his career to date, such as what it was like in the early part of his boxing journey and how his rise is often still seen as an underdog story, despite him being a world champion.

Steve added: “If you look at Chris’ career and the way he’s had to come through the ranks, touring the country fighting in places like Sheffield, Wembley, Glasgow, Manchester, and all over London.

“Then suddenly in the summer of 2022 he came home to a sold out the Bournemouth International centre to win the European title against a good boxer called Isaac Chamberlin.

“He was an underdog. He then went on to win the world title outside at the Vitality Stadium against Lawrence Okolie, where he was an underdog. Even in his last defence, at Crystal Palace’s Ground, Sellerhurst Park, outdoors, cold, rainy night, he was the underdog.”

This is the sixth date of the 5 Live Boxing Tour which has already taken place in Belfast, Cardiff, Cromer, Leeds and Liverpool.

Tickets for the Bournemouth event are free and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. You can apply for a maximum of two tickets from the BBC Shows and Tour website.