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Lawrence Okolie makes his heavyweight debut this weekend and the former cruiserweight and bridgerweight world champion is feeling the benefits of being able to concentrate fully on beating Hussein Muhamed rather than battling the scales.
“I feel good, you know. It’s been good eating breakfast this morning, having lunch. I feel fuelled up and feel ready for Saturday,” Okolie, 20-1 (15 KOs), said at Thursday’s press conference.
“I don’t know [what he will weigh]. I haven’t checked. I don’t have to check, but I don’t know. I’ll be reasonably heavy. I’ll be much heavier than I was at cruiserweight, I’ll tell you that.
“He had plenty to say, but you know, actions are going to speak louder. I think Saturday is just a few days away, so we’re going to find out.”
Muhamed, 18-1 (14 KOs), hasn’t mixed with anybody with Okolie’s list of accomplishments but the 33-year-old German is a career heavyweight. At a press conference three weeks ago, Muhamed laughed when Okolie claimed he would stop him in six rounds and still refuses to believe it.
“I was laughing because it just comes naturally that I laugh because he says he will knock me out in the first six rounds, and I just say, ‘Good luck, Lawrence.’” Muhamed said. “I didn’t have nothing personal against him, but if he talks like that, how can I respond to that, you know? If he says he doesn’t know me, that I’m no one and he will knock me out in the first six rounds? We’re going to see on Saturday, Lawrence. Trust me. I’m on fire, man.
“My prediction? I don’t want to give the outcome to the judges. That’s the only thing I can say.”
Okolie has been inconsistent over the years. Spectacular knockouts have been interspersed with frustratingly negative performances, but in May he looked devastating when he weighed 223lbs and knocked out Poland’s Lukas Rozanski to win the WBC bridgerweight belt. He thinks his natural attributes will help him against Hussein.
“This is the heavyweight division. It’s all about knockouts and I’ve got several different ways I’m going to be able to do it with Hussein,” he said. “I’ve obviously got the speed advantage. I wonder, even at heavyweight, I believe I’ll be the bigger puncher. I’ll be picking clever shots to the head, clever shots to the body, and just showing boxing skill and then we’ll box our way to a big knockout.”
Okolie is the latest addition to Queensberry’s packed heavyweight roster. It would be fair to say that at the moment there is probably more intrigue than excitement about his arrival amongst the big men but the 31-year-old certainly has the frame and pedigree to make an impact. A couple of confidence-boosting wins will do wonders for Okolie and his new promoter Frank Warren believes he will want to make an immediate statement in his new weight division.
“We never really met that much but I was quite surprised how big a guy he is,” Warren said of his new signing. “I don’t know how he ever made the weight in the first place. I think it’s very key to what he’s saying is that he’s eating properly. He’s not got to worry about the scales as such.
“He’s a heavyweight and let’s see what a difference that’s going to make to him. He’s very comfortable with that.
“And then we’ve got Hussein, who is on fire. He [Okolie] has got to try and put the fire out. This is going to be a really exciting heavyweight fight. I really do believe it’s exciting because I think Lawrence is going to go out there and show what he’s all about and this man on my right, Hussein, has not come here to make up the numbers. It’s going to be a good fight.”
John Evans has contributed to a number of well-known publications and websites for over a decade. You can follow John on X @John_Evans79