How do you win a boxing staredown? Two fighters going head to head to glower at one another is an essential feature of the build-up to a fight in the modern sport.
The combatants come face to face at press conferences, weigh-ins and other encounters and are expected to lock a steely-eyed gaze on one another. These can turn into mental battles when neither boxer wants to back down or look away.
We read into these face-offs, they're often deemed crucial indicators of the psychology of the rival fighters. But do the boxers care, can you win or lose a staredown? We asked former world champion Chris Billam-Smith, well versed in intense face-offs himself.
"I think at a weigh-in I get adrenaline from them. Just to pump me up," Billam-Smith told Your Site.
"Sometimes my leg shakes but it's like an adrenaline thing. But really in my head I'm just [thinking]: 'This is it now. I've done all the work.' I love it. Enjoy it. Some people it matters to them, some people it doesn't."
Though Billam-Smith maintains he doesn't try to stare down or psyche out his opponents, his face-offs with rival Richard Riakporhe did stretch out with ever-increasing tension.
"He didn't care, until he cared. All week he looked away first, looked away first and then he cared and we had a six-minute staredown or whatever it was. I think if they care, I care," the former champion said.
"Lawrence Okolie never cared, he'd always look away first in all his fights. So I knew he was going to do it against me.
"I think it depends on how you look at it. I've probably looked away first in some fights and won them. Does it matter? Probably not. I think it matters in how you feel. If you go into it going: 'I have to win this', and then you don't, then it matters. For me it just depends where I'm at on the day. They're always good fun and they're what the fans enjoy."
Does he have a preferred technique for a staredown?
"I always look into the same eye. And then I just stare," he laughed. "Sometimes I widen my eyes and really stare… I look into the soul!
"I just play around with it, it's good fun."
Billam-Smith has never been one to indulge much in pre-fight mind games and does not trash-talk his opposition.
"It comes with the business," Billam-Smith said of trash-talk, "but the top level [boxers] can carry integrity and hold their values outside the ring and switch it on on fight night.
"It's kind of what I've forged myself into is that person and that's really important to me. Boxing isn't my entire life. I have family, I have young boys that want to grow up and be a good role model to them both during my career and in the ring, showing them that effort, discipline and that side of things and respect for the craft inside the ring."
He added: "You have to be a fierce competitor inside the ring but outside of it you don't need to be that same person. You need to be able to control both.
"I think I've become quite good at that, which is one of the things I'm most proud of - keeping that integrity and at times it's definitely difficult in a world where it rewards the clickbait-y stuff, I'm proud of myself for being that person."
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