Former WBO cruiserweight champion Lawrence Okolie (19-1, 14 KOs) believes he’s going to knockout unbeaten Lukasz Rozanski (15-0, 14 KOs) when he challenges him for his WBC Bridgerweight world title this Friday night, May 24th, live on Sky Sports at the Hala na Podpromiu, Rzeszow, Poland.
A Knockout Necessity
It’s the kind of fight where Okolie, 31, has no choice but to go all out for a knockout because his chances of going twelve rounds against a relentless puncher like Rozanski are slim.
The Polish fighter Rozanski punches too hard and never stops attacking for a second to allow the 6’5″ Okolie to concentrate on trying to use his boxing skills.
Hopefully, for Okolie’s sake, he’s made changes to his game and isn’t going to be using constant holding to try to nullify Rozanski’s offense because that’s not going to work against this guy. Rozanski continues to punch when held by his opponents and has a lot of power in close.
Okolie was twice penalized for holding in his loss to Chris Billiam-Smith last May, and if he chooses to take that approach to this fight, we could see something similar happen on Friday night.
Okolie has to learn from his mistakes in fights to weed out that part of his game that’s been resistant to change. One of the reasons Okolie has failed to become a more popular fighter worldwide is his bad habit of holding. It’s unclear if he can fight without excessive clinching, but he must try against Rozanski.
Okolie’s Knockout Prediction
“People like knockouts, and I expect to get one in this fight. So tune in and watch a Brit become world champion,” said Lawrence Okolie to Pro Boxing Fans about his fight on Friday night against WBC bridgerweight champion Lukasz Rozanski in Poland.
“I’ve been a very explosive puncher and a very dynamic fighter for the majority of my career. I’ve won everything there is to win at cruiserweight. Now, I’m going up through the gears. I want to do it viciously,” said Okolie.
Rozanski is also an excellent puncher, but he doesn’t possess the kind of one-punch power that Okolie has going for him. But what Rozanski lacks in single punch power is that he more than makes up for it with his work rate. His punches are nonstop, and that kind of pressure quickly breaks his opponents.
“You got to know what to expect. It’s going to be hostile,” said Okolie about fighting on foreign territory in Poland against the home fighter Rozanski. “He’s going to be super pumped. So there’s everything to be done on my end, but I’m ready to do it.”
Rozanski’s recent knockouts:
– Alen Babic
– Artur Szpilka
– Ozcan Cetinkaya
“I’ve had to get really comfortable being in firing range and punching back, which is going to come in handy in this fight. This is about executing a meticulous game plan and putting on a show-stopping performance,” said Okolie.
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