Okolie Hoping Gallagher-Effect Helps Him With ‘Dangerous’ Fight In Poland

“He’s good, he’s dangerous, he poses a lot of threats and there’s only one way I can lose this fight, I’ve got to be prepared to go through the fire and we’re good to go.”

Lawrence Okolie is at a point in his career where he needs to make things count.

Financially stable, and with goals to improve as a fighter and move up to heavyweight, the former WBO cruiserweight champion could be inclined to walk away rather than endure either the pain or criticism from this business.

The 31-year-old heads into the lion’s den on Friday night, when he faces Poland’s Lukasz Rozanski, 15-0 (14 KOs) in Rzeszow in Poland.

Okolie had been entitled to a contracted rematch with Chris Billam-Smith, who dethroned him in Bournemouth last May, but now Okolie boxes for the WBC’s bridgerweight belt on his way up to the heavyweight division.

Initially, Okolie had wanted to box Billam-Smith and get revenge on his stablemate. Without fully explaining why it didn’t happen, the Boxxer-promoted fighter said: “From about November, December it was kind of like on the cards [fighting at bridgerweight], when I couldn’t get the rematch with CBS that I wanted, it was kind of like if I can’t get this one, you need to offer me something else, and this was floated and then it became a reality.”

When asked whether he wanted to fight the rematch, he added: “Yes, you know, things happen. I don’t want to say too much on that stuff but it’s a fight I wanted. It didn’t end up happening, and that’s fine.”

Does that mean he is annoyed it has not happened? 

“Yes and no. Yes, because at that time I was still floating around that 100-kilo mark and I could make that weight, but after that fight slipped away, I realised it does make sense to move up, fill out a bit more and push on to other goals.” 

And, with that, he is certain his cruiserweight days are all over. He walks around at around 240lbs, but can easily find himself pushing 260.

That means the fight with former Shane McGuigan-trained stablemate Billam-Smith has gone for good.

“Yeah, I just don’t think I can physically get down there [to 200lbs] if I wanted to,” Okolie said. “Even getting down to bridgerweight is going to be a tiny bit of a strain, but cruiserweight is going to be impossible now.”

Bridgerweight is neither universally accepted nor universally appreciated, but Okolie is hoping he can not only pick up another piece of silverware, but that he can bring some respect to the division. 

“I think it’s a mixture of the two,” he admitted. “It’s the weight class that’s got a WBC belt, which I think is probably the nicest looking and one of the most prestigious belts in boxing… 

“Every weight class has good fighters and good hard fights; it’s just about bringing attention to it. If it was vacant it might be different, but I’m looking to try to beat an undefeated world champion. Similar to the cruiserweight division back in 2018 – although the Word Boxing Super Series was good – if you’re talking about in England, it wasn’t really popping. Then I managed to win a world title and bring a little bit of light to it, and from there the likes of CBS – who managed to beat me – and [Richard] Riakporhe and all these other guys managed to get more limelight and more of a push towards world level and now they’re all around European or world [level] so I think a similar thing will happen with bridgerweight. 

“As long as I’m able to win it, there will be some good dust-ups.”

Riakporhe challenges Billam-Smith on June 15, but he already has designs on moving up to face Okolie, should he claim the bridger belt.

But Rozanski comes first for Okolie, on Friday night, and it’s a fight that might not have happened had Tony Bellew forged ahead with his comeback plans to challenge the Pole. Okolie understands it was Rozanski who appealed to Bellew rather than him, and doesn’t anticipate Bellew calling his name any time soon.

“I think me and Lucas are two different fighters, and styles make fights,” Okolie said. “Tony’s a really good catch and counter guy, really good left hook, and I think he would do very well against Rozanski and I’m not sure how stylistically he would do with me, especially because he’s a lot older now than when he was in his prime. It’s not a fight I really look at. I respect Tony, but you never know.”

As Okolie attempts to forge towards fresh glory, he has begun training with Manchester’s Joe Gallagher following a chance meeting. Having accepted a call to spar Joseph Parker ahead of his fight with Deontay Wilder, Okolie had no idea that he would find himself in the corner with his future trainer. 

Okolie had been training with SugarHill Steward post-McGuigan but after having a baby, the commute from Dubai to the USA was becoming too complex. He travelled from his home in Dubai to spar Parker –  in the Mike Tyson gym out of which Gallagher often operates.

“Joe happened to be in the gym and he took my corner and from the first spar I liked how he operated,” Okolie recalled. “It was like, ‘This is what you’re going to do, this is what you need to do. Do it’. ‘Okay, he’s going to come in and try to throw this shot and this shot’ so when I saw Parker throwing those shots I thought, ‘Okay, well done, Joe’. And I threw my own shots and it kind of helped me fast-track it, because if you’re going to be sparring someone who is like a world-class heavyweight, if we can do that well, why not push it a bit further. 

“After that, I liked how he was in terms of what I need because living in somewhere like Dubai after being a world champion and doing the stuff that I’ve done, he kind of pushed me the first few weeks of us training. I was heavy, out of shape, he kept on pushing, and after a couple of weeks of it he said, ‘Cool, I just wanted to make sure you actually wanted it, because you live a comfortable life in Dubai and I wanted to know that when you come here, you’re not thinking about that, you’re thinking about the work that you’re doing’. 

“That is going to pay dividends in this fight.”