Forget, if you can, the bad blood that exists between Saturday night’s headliners – Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr. The opening bout on Saturday’s card at an expected sold-out Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has gone into full nasty mode. Former WBO cruiserweight champ Chris Billam-Smith, CBS, will face “Bullet Proof” Brandon Glanton. And plenty of us have an inkling that this fight could prove to be the fight of the night.

(Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing)

CBS, last seen losing in a brutal battle with “Zurdo” Ramirez, is no trash-talking type of guy, the Brit preferring to, as Marvin Hagler always said was the case with him, let his fists do the talking. But Atlanta’s Glanton has ramped things up a few notches in the verbal stakes. Glanton, who is 20-2(17) to 20-2(13) for CBS, has said that he will give Billam-Smith “brain damage” when they fight, and that his rival is a “b***h” of a father.

Nasty stuff indeed, especially when we consider how these two fighters, who hail from opposite sides of the Atlantic, don’t know each other. Basically, at all. Where Glanton has got his anger from, his dislike, his hatred, even, is a mystery.

But the fight between these two 200-pounders could prove memorable and, as loath as I am to swallow the hype and shell out a good amount of honest dough to watch Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Junior go at it, this undercard fight is pulling me in. Maybe it’s the same with you, fellow fight fan?

Glanton and CBS will go to war; it seems their fight is destined to be savage and exciting. As to who wins, I’m fully on the fence with this one. May the best man win. And if we go by the behaviour and the manners both men have displayed in the lead-up to Saturday’s fight, the best man here is Chris Billam-Smith.

But can CBS make Glanton pay for his disrespect?

Going out on a limb, my pick is Glanton on points, in a fight that severely tests both men.