Although Safar pushed for the fight to be rescheduled on “The Ring: High Stakes” show on February 21 in Las Vegas, Ramirez removed himself from the situation altogether and has opted to go straight into the bout against David Benavidez.

The sequence of events has led Safar to recalibrate and chase a fight against former cruiserweight titleholder Chris Billam-Smith instead. Billam-Smith doesn't have a fight lined up either, and the frustrated Safar is stating that his callout is too appropriate to be falling on deaf ears.

Billam-Smith is The Ring’s No. 2-rated fighter at cruiserweight and Safar is ranked No. 8.

“I believe CBS is ducking me, plain and simple,” Safar told The Ring. “The only guy who is qualified and is in a similar position like me is CBS. He is standing in my way. My manager started communicating with his manager to see if it’s something that interests him. They said, ‘yes, that could make a lot of sense.’ I then saw that he said ‘he knows little of me’ and that if the fight puts him in a position for a world title opportunity, then he would entertain it.

“I want a big world title fight, too, but the titles are tied up. Why are we not fighting each other in an eliminator? I feel like CBS is in my way, but I also feel like he knows this fight is very dangerous for him, so why take it when he can just wait it out. His team seems to be dragging their feet.”

The 33-year-old Safar realizes he doesn’t have too much time to waste.

Safar (19-0, 13 KOs) had his coming-out party in May 2024 by crushing a faded version of former pound-for-pound staple Sergey Kovalev by unanimous decision. The performance also included a knockdown, and Safar leveraged the momentum to sign with Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions soon after. Safar has fought just twice since, however, scoring wins in both fights last year.

Safar stated a potential slugfest against Billam-Smith would be an entertaining fight with international appeal, as Safar is from Sweden and "CBS" is from the United Kingdom.

“I will come to his backyard, and I will put him away, and I would love to do it on the Tyson Fury-Arslanbek Makhmudov undercard on April 11 in London,” said Safar. “It looks like he already has one foot out and is planning his retirement – that’s great. I’ll send him into retirement with a nice payday on a big event in front of his fans.

“We as fighters know how to assess each other, and he knows he has zero advantages over me. He’s too slow, he's not stronger, he's not smarter, he's not bigger, and he doesn’t have more heart than me. There is nothing he does better than me. I’m too dangerous for him. He's looking for the path of least resistance. I want him and I’m looking for him, so he should stop being a coward and fight.”

Billam-Smith (21-2, 13 KOs) last fought in April and scored a unanimous decision win against Brandon Glanton. It was the 35-year-old’s first fight since losing his WBO title to Ramirez in November 2024 by unanimous decision.