The British fighter tasted defeat for just the second time in his career earlier this month as he surrendered his WBO cruiserweight title to the Mexican but is determined to carry on competing at "world level" after earning world championship glory.

Billam-Smith told BBC Sport: "I was hitting him with real neat shots and just wasn’t getting any reaction from him and I was shocked at that.

"That’s a learning curve for me and the team, we thought I’d be able to get to him and hurt him but it wasn’t to be.

"I’ve never hit someone that clean and not got a reaction. He’d then fire back within five seconds with three or four big punches which was very disheartening."

Billam-Smith went the distance during the fight in Saudi Arabia despite suffering deep cuts around his eyes that left his vision blurred towards the end of the contest and resulted in him being hospitalised after the bout.

He said: "I was just trying to process everything afterwards at the hospital.

"I was in a lot of pain, I was cold and hadn’t eaten anything. I couldn’t move from bed to bed on my own and I needed support from others.

"I just remember lying there and shaking because I hadn’t eaten or had any water because of the morphine they were putting me on, which did absolutely nothing for the pain.

"That type of fight was so draining mentally and physically, it was really hard to be honest."