Lawrence Okolie has taken loads of stick since dropping his cruiserweight world title however he has now obtained his profession again on monitor with a spotlight reel knockout win in Poland – proving that he could be profitable exterior of the cruiserweight division and turning into a two-division world champion within the course of.
After dropping his WBO cruiserweight title in a shock defeat to Chris Billam-Smith in his most up-to-date outing, Okolie delayed his imminent transfer to heavyweight in favour of a shot at turning into a two-division world champion, stopping by within the bridgerweight division for a conflict with Poland’s Lukasz Rozanski.
Forward of the bout, ‘The Sauce’ additionally made the choice to ditch SugarHill Steward and appoint Joe Gallagher as his new head coach – who was vocal in his perception that his new fighter wanted to discover a first stoppage since 2021 to be victorious – following three underwhelming shows towards Michael Cieslak, David Mild and Billam-Smith, as reported by fightnews.com.
“I’ve stated to him since day one which if he thinks he’s going to go over there and win on factors he’s completely mad. That’s simply not the way it’s going to be. There’s going to be a hostile crowd. He’s obtained to look to knock him out in spherical one or two, even ten or eleven however he can’t let it go to factors.”
Nevertheless, towards Rozanski that is simpler stated than achieved. The undefeated champion entered the ring with a document of 15-0, with 14 of these wins coming by the use of knockout, the newest of which got here towards a well-known face to British followers within the type of Alen Babic, who he stopped within the first-round.
With Okolie usually being criticized for holding and adopting a unfavorable recreation plan, it will take a polarising efficiency, a whole distinction to the Brit’s newest shows if he was to turn into a multi-weight world champion.
From the opening bell, it was clear to see that Okolie had no intentions of permitting this bout to go to the judges, throwing the straight right-hand with dangerous intentions early on within the opening-round and dropping the house fighter after taking a half-step backwards and delivering a picture-perfect shot.
Over a minute left within the spherical and Rozanski couldn’t get his toes beneath him. He rapidly discovered himself choosing himself up off of the canvas as soon as once more simply seconds later, being pinned towards the ropes and feeling the complete impact of one more straight punch.
The referee may have simply waived the competition off at this level however as an alternative allowed the champion the prospect to get well and make it to the top of the spherical, however Okolie had different concepts and located a house for a great thing about an uppercut to convey the bout to and finish and put the exclamation level on a flawless debut beneath Joe Gallagher, the place his directions have been adopted to a tee.
Whether or not Okolie will stay and defend his belt at bridgerweight stays to be seen, however this efficiency offers the indication that he’s comfortably above those that are competing on the weight. If he have been to remain, Kevin Lerena stands proud as the plain choice as he’s the necessary challenger, though Okolie might resolve to make the bounce to heavyweight off of the again of an excellent efficiency.
Remainder of the invoice
- Fiodor Czerkaszyn (23-1) TKO RD7 vs. Jorge Cota (31-6) – Middleweight
- Jan Czerklewicz (12-1) UD8 vs. Paul Valenzuela Costa (28-11) – Tremendous-Middleweight
- Ihosvany Rafael Garcia (12-0) KO RD2 vs. Lukasz Plawecki (7-1-2) – Mild-Heavyweight
- Tobiasz Zarzeczny (5-0) UD4 vs. Daniel Przewieslik (3-13-2) – Tremendous-Middleweight
- Kamil Slendak (1-1) TKO RD2 vs. Daniel Plonka (1-0) – Cruiserweight
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