Cheavon Clarke abruptly erased Chris Billam-Smith’s strongest round, flooring him twice in the seventh to close out a dominant TKO win on Saturday at London’s Copper Box Arena. The referee halted the cruiserweight clash at 1:24, handing Billam-Smith his first defeat inside the distance.

Billam-Smith immediately called for another fight, saying he wanted to “run it back” with Clarke. That would require finding answers to the right hands and cleaner combinations that repeatedly caught him before the finish.

Clarke (13-2, 10 KOs) had already done the cleaner work before producing the finish. His right hands repeatedly found Billam-Smith (22-3, 14 KOs), whose attempts to turn the scheduled 10-rounder into a close-range physical fight brought only intermittent success.

The former WBO champion had wanted revenge for two amateur defeats against Clarke, including the 2016 National Championships final. Instead, Clarke supplied a much harsher reminder of their history, becoming the first fighter to put him down as a professional.

After a scrappy opening round, Billam-Smith improved in the second by closing the distance and landing heavier punches. Clarke answered with sharp combinations in the third and edged the fourth with two late right hands. Another heavy right in the fifth underlined how often Billam-Smith was being caught before he could establish his own attack.

Billam-Smith’s durability kept him competitive, but absorbing those punches was no substitute for preventing them. His pressure worked when he got close enough to throw hooks to the head and body. Too often, however, Clarke landed first and denied him the sustained offense he needed.

The sixth finally gave Billam-Smith something to build on. He raised his output and landed solid hooks upstairs and downstairs, narrowing Clarke’s lead to 58-56 on our card.

That progress disappeared in the seventh. A well-timed right sent Billam-Smith down, and Clarke attacked immediately after he beat the count. The second knockdown brought the stoppage.

Clarke earned this through accuracy and timing before his power settled it. Billam-Smith briefly threatened to change the fight, but the punches he had absorbed throughout the earlier rounds remained a problem he never solved.