Richard Riakporhe’s rise from close to loss of life to Selhurst Park dream world title combat in opposition to Chris Billam-Smith | Boxing Information

Selhurst Park is just a few miles from the Aylesbury Property in south London, the place Richard Riakporhe grew up.

However Riakporhe has come a really lengthy method to attain this level when, on Saturday, he fights for a world title on the Crystal Palace floor.

To problem for the WBO championship this weekend, reside on Sky Sports activities, on the stadium of the soccer membership he helps, in a rematch in opposition to British rival Chris Billam-Smith for him is the stuff of desires.

It marks the fruits of a journey that he nearly did not get to start out. When he was simply 15, Riakporhe was the sufferer of a stabbing that he was fortunate to outlive. He nonetheless bears the scar from that brush with loss of life. It is a reminder now of how he modified his complete life.

“I came off the streets straight into the boxing gym,” he advised Sky Sports activities. “I got here by the exhausting manner.

“I learned like a true apprentice.”

The Lynn, the oldest boxing membership within the nation and an establishment in south east London, set him on that new path.

“I fell in love with the sport. It gave me purpose, it gave me drive, it gave me something to do, kept me out of a lot of trouble and before you know it, before long I was actually competing for amateur championships,” Riakporhe mentioned.

“I said you know what, I want to pursue my passion and my passion was boxing. I just felt like it was perfect for me and who I am as a human being. I’m very ambitious. I always wanted to work towards something in my life and it just matched everything.”

He did not even realise he had a novel high quality that will subsequently mark him out as knowledgeable – his fearsome punch energy.

In his first beginner bout, he hesitated. He backpedalled.

“I didn’t want to get hit. I always believed as an amateur that everybody possessed the same power that I did. I thought it was normal to be able to punch like that. I didn’t want to get hit with that type of power so I was just always moving and then when I landed my shots the fight was over. I knocked him out in the first round,” Riakporhe recalled.

“It was a run of KOs. I remember going in the championships and knocking out everybody to get to the finals. I was known for being a big puncher from way back then.”

Billam-Smith, on his personal quest to avenge his solely profession defeat in opposition to Riakporhe, believes he can flip the Londoner’s power-punching right into a weak spot. He thinks Riakporhe depends an excessive amount of on that energy, ready for a knockout and giving up rounds. That Billam-Smith totally intends to use.

Riakporhe naturally rejected that notion. “That’s complete nonsense,” he mentioned.

“It doesn’t matter whether I’m being lazy or not, whether I’m winning the rounds or not. There are fights that I’ve been in where I didn’t come with the intention to win the rounds. I just wanted the knockout.

“I’ve hit so many individuals that I do know that once I land my photographs I’ll trigger plenty of harm, even when they do not get knocked out.”

He did acknowledge: “It is a blessing to have a ability like that however it may be a curse on the identical time. It might probably make you a bit lazy.

“I’ve gone back to the gym and I’ve rectified that laziness and that’s what makes me even more dangerous now.”

This combat can be Riakporhe’s first try and win a world title, however he has crushed Billam-Smith earlier than.

“He has to rectify the loss. He has to get one back,” the Londoner mentioned. “He can’t live with his own failure and that’s the blemish on his record to me.

“As a result of guess what, it is truly introduced him again full circle to me.

“So what does that mean? Have you really progressed? Because if you’d really progressed you wouldn’t be having to see the ‘Midnight Train’ once again. But we’re back here.”

He added: “I’m not giving ‘The Gentleman’ no more chance. There’s not going to be no trilogy. This fight is where it ends. I’ll do it again and that’s it. There’ll be no third chance for him.”

For Riakporhe profitable this combat would “would mean everything”.

“Because we had a goal and the goal was to become world champion and to move on from there. I never thought that I would be able to perform on the ground of my favourite football team. Just to be able to represent Crystal Palace was enough for me. That done it for me. For them to entrust me with their brand, what they represent, as a fellow south Londoner that is very humbling, very humbling for me,” he mentioned.

“I will do everything to make sure I bring that title, not only to win it for myself but also to bring to hope to everybody in south London. Everybody has their individual fights, things that they’re going through that nobody knows, just to be a kind of reference to them.

“Like if I can do it coming from my background, all of the issues that I needed to overcome, being stabbed once I was 15, almost dying, being a product of my surroundings, having the ability to make it out, all the things was all the time a combat and I simply wish to be that form of reference to them. That I am one in every of you. I am no famous person.

“I’m just a normal guy. A normal working class guy that just had dreams and was ambitious and I made something of myself.

“It’s also possible to do the identical too.”

Only 30 per cent of tickets remain for Billam-Smith vs Riakporhe. Get your tickets now via Boxxer.com.

Watch Chris Billam-Smith defend his WBO cruiserweight world title against Richard Riakporhe at Crystal Palace’s Selhurst Park, live on Sky Sports on Saturday June 15; or Stream with NOW