LONDON — Lawrence Okolie is accustomed to mixing it with boxing’s big boys and the move from cruiserweight to heavyweight — via a brief stint at bridgerweight — gives him the chance become one of the sport’s big names.
Okolie will make his debut in the sport’s blue-ribbon division on Saturday in London, taking on Hussein Muhamed from Germany in what will also be his first fight under promoter Frank Warren.
He has already sparred most of the best in the division including Daniel Dubois, Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury and Joseph Parker, but now it’s his turn to be under the heavyweight spotlight. Okolie, a former cruiserweight world champion who also picked up the WBC bridgerweight title in May, has long been tipped to move to heavyweight. Now on the eve of his debut, the 31-year-old is in such good shape, it has become clear just how much cutting weight took out of him.
“I feel really big, really strong,” Okolie told ESPN. “Being super dehydrated, not being able to eat fully, I think it stops you from recovering.
“After the weigh-in, you can’t really expect to perform how you were in the gym when you get to fight night because you’ve literally drained your goodness and try to refill it in 24 hours when you’ve been training for the last 10-12 days.”
Okolie jokes it will be his first time walking to the ring without a six-pack, but the ability to eat fully has been a game changer when it comes to recovering from brutal sessions under coach Joe Gallagher.
Now he isn’t forcing himself to get below 200 pounds, he not only feels better physically, but fight week has not been as much of a mental ordeal either.
“I can see it was crazy some of the stuff that I was doing. When I go into the sauna just for a little bit of recovery, I’m like: ‘Goodness … I was doing three times this with a break [before].’ It’s insane,” he said.
While a session in the sauna might sound like a spa day, it is anything but when it comes after a punishing day in the gym, especially when you’re also under pressure to shed those last extra pounds to make weight.
Now, Okolie spends less time feeling dehydrated and worrying about calorie intake and more time on his craft.
He says it has even had a positive impact on his ability to sleep.
“When you’re making weight it’s tough to get to bed. I feel [now] I’m getting really good nights of sleep, which is new as well. And doing a short camp, I would’ve never have been able to do it and make cruiserweight or anything, so now it’s good,” Okolie said.
The Londoner is careful to add that the proof will be in the result on Saturday, but a good performance will set him up for a strong 2025 in boxing’s glamour division. It’s the first step on a path, he hopes, that will lead him to becoming a three-weight world champion, while also joining the exclusive club which includes Evander Holyfield, David Haye and Oleksandr Usyk to be both cruiserweight and heavyweight world champions.
Holyfield and Usyk both became undisputed champion, while Haye won the WBA title in 2009.
After winning two world titles, Okolie reflected and decided the idea of one day looking back and saying: ‘I was heavyweight world champion,’ is the next dream.
“Because there is a point where money isn’t enough, they make you go through [everything] because boxing’s are very, very tough sport, mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually,” he said. “So that has been my biggest motivation now with moving up having an opportunity to win, become three weight world champion, with the crème de la crème being a heavyweight world title.
“That’s the sort of thing that cements your legacy forever.
“So by the time I’m 50, 70 [years old] … God willing I’m still around, 80, 90 … You always have that: ‘When I was a young man, I was three-weight world champion, heavyweight world champion, check the record books.'”
Source: www.espn.com