Kevin Lerena still wants the title fight he earned against the WBC bridgerweight titlist Lawrence Okolie.
“I’m mandated to fight Lawrence Okolie, me being the WBC interim bridgerweight champion and him being the full champion,” Lerena (30-3, 14 KOs) recently told Boxing Social.
But the forward momentum towards Okolie-Lerena has come to a halt – at least temporarily. They had agreed to fight, but their match-up was sent back to a purse bid that is scheduled to be held this Friday, according to The Ring.
Lerena says he’s heard that Okolie instead wants to defend his title against Richard Riakporhe – a cruiserweight contender who suffered his first loss in June, via unanimous decision to Chris Billam-Smith.
“You can make the fight with whoever you want to, but I’m mandatory,” Lerena said. “So if you’re gonna wanna make fights with other guys in the weight division where I’m mandated to fight you, then his team needs to come up with a very good step-aside fee, because I want the fight with Lawrence Okolie.
“It’s nothing personal. It’s business. It’s not a hard fight to make. If we’re all reasonable and everybody gets their worth, we can make the fight happen.”
Lerena’s preference is to get paid for stepping into the ring, not for stepping aside.
“I’m not interested in the step-aside fee,” he said. “I want the fight.”
Lerena spent much of his career at cruiserweight, but has occasionally fought at heavyweight. In 2022 he fought three times at heavyweight, knocking out Bogdan Dinu, widely outpointing Mariusz Wach, and then getting stopped in three rounds by Daniel Dubois in a bout in which Dubois hurt his leg and hit the canvas thrice in the opening three minutes.
The WBC is still trying to create a division between cruiserweight and heavyweight – one that limits its competitors to being heavier than 200lbs but lighter than 224lbs. The WBA has recently followed suit.
In 2023 Lerena won an elimination contest with Ryad Merhy, and then the WBC interim title by beating Senad Gashi. In March 2024 he moved to heavyweight once more and lost a unanimous decision to Justis Huni.
Okolie moved up from the cruiserweight division after a majority decision defeat in 2023 by Billam-Smith. He returned in May, when he demolished Lukasz Rozanski in 175 seconds.
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2 and @UnitedBoxingPod. He is the co-host of the United Boxing Podcast. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.