Lawrence Okolie can be expected to come in lighter for his fight with Richard Riakporhe than he did for December’s victory over Hussein Muhamed.
The 32-year-old Okolie fights Riakporhe, his one-time cruiserweight rival, on April 5 at Manchester’s Co-op Live Arena on the occasion of Riakporhe’s heavyweight debut.
When in December the former WBO cruiserweight champion stopped Germany’s Muhamed inside a round he had unexpectedly weighed in at a career-heaviest 260.8lbs. Their contest at Wembley Arena in London was his first as a heavyweight, following the first-round stoppage of Lukasz Rozanski of Poland in the lightly-regarded bridgerweight division and his only ever defeat, when he sacrificed his title to Chris Billam-Smith at cruiserweight in 2023.
That his trainer Joe Gallagher had spoken so positively about his transition into a heavyweight when it had been speculated that he would remain, by the standards of his new weight division, light and built for speed had similarly suggested that Okolie remained committed to his new build, but against Riakporhe – also expected to remain lean and fast – he is on course to be lighter once again.
“He’ll adjust accordingly,” Gallagher told BoxingScene. “I know what his best performing weight is, because I’ve seen it in the gym, and when he weighed 16st in Poland he ended up getting in the ring at around 17st 2lbs, 17st 3lbs – around that weight – for Lawrence.
“But because he was fighting someone [in Muhamed] of 18st he just wanted to put a bit more on and see how he was. It didn’t take away anything from his gym work. He was still doing his times on the track; he was still doing his sparring; everything else. He can breathe, and box, and relax. It’s unfortunate the first two fights have gone in the first round. I can’t wait for him now to have rounds under the bank and show everyone the development over the last 12 months.
“After winning in Poland, at bridgerweight – that bridged the gap for moving up. We picked that opponent, who was 18st – we wanted Lawrence to fight a proper 18st man. Good kid; had a good record. I watched him; thought, ‘He’s going to give us rounds’. Hence Lawrence said, ‘Inside six’. I thought it’d be within seven, eight – something like that. Lawrence capitalised and let the shot go – it was really good. He carried the weight well. His training went well. He ran well. His track work went well.
“It’s people in the game that let you down – they start commenting about his appearance and all that. We have Tyson Fury who isn’t body beautiful; Larry Holmes wasn’t body beautiful. Lawrence Okolie made the weight and he performed at the weight, and he was carrying devastating power.
“I’m really happy with Lawrence. Twelve, 14 months ago he was in Saudi [Arabia], depressed, after losing to Chris Billam-Smith. Last 12 months he’s relocated; come to Manchester; done his training camp. Two first-round knockouts. It was one of the comebacks of the year.”
Okolie-Riakporhe was confirmed for the undercard of Dillian Whyte-Joe Joyce, after Gallagher had previously expected his fighter to be matched with Joyce, in the event of Joyce defeating Patrick Korte on March 1.
Before Okolie’s date with the 35-year-old Riakporhe and also at heavyweight will be the contest between David Adeleye and Jeamie Tshikeva, and the Paris 2024 Olympian Delicious Orie’s professional debut.
“As far as I was concerned we were fighting Joe Joyce,” Gallagher said. “The fight was done last year until he got beat; I understood he was having a run-out in March and he was fighting Lawrence next. For whatever reason they’ve pulled out of fighting Lawrence, which is a bit annoying, really, ‘cause I thought it was a good fight for Lawrence.
“It was a good fight to test himself against a motivated opponent with a point to prove, and see how he was with him, strength-wise and everything else. ‘Joe Joyce, if you can’t beat this up-and-coming cruiserweight, where are you going?’”
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