Lawrence Okolie – David Light – weights for Saturday’s fight on Sky Sports

By Boxing News - 03/24/2023 - Comments

By Barry Holbrook: Lawrence Okolie (18-0, 14 KOs) will put his unbeaten record & WBO cruiserweight title on the line against mandatory David ‘Great White’ Light (20-0, 12 KO) in an exciting battle this Saturday night at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. Saturday’s Okolie vs. Light event will be shown live on Sky Sports in the UK and Ireland.

Okolie weighed in at 200 pounds earlier today, while the 31-year-old New Zealander Light scaled in at 198 1/4 lbs at Friday’s weigh-in.

YouTube video

The 6’5″ knockout artist Okolie intends to entertain the fans on Saturday, as he understands the importance of pleasing people with his high-light reel KOs.

Light is confident of pulling off the victory, but that would seem a little farfetched given his lack of punching power and his problems beating his last opponent Brandon Glandon last December. The lack of power for Light will make it difficult for him to survive long on Saturday because he has nothing to keep Okolie off him.

Undercard fights for Saturday:

Frazer Clarke vs. Bogdan Dinu
Michael Gomez Jnr vs. Levi Giles
Karriss Artingstall vs. Linzi Kuczyński
Callum Simpson vs. Celso Neves
Rhys Edwards vs. Brian Phillips
Shakiel Thompson vs. Robert Talarek
Samiel Antwi vs. Omar Rodriguez
Frankie Stringer vs. Jacob Laskowski
Harvey Lambert vs. Casey Brown

Okolie is ready to execute where it matters

“What I watch myself do every day in the gym with sparring, on the bags and the pads, it’s all about being able to execute where it matters because people come to the gym and they’re like, ‘You’re amazing.’ So it’s about taking it from the gym to fight night,” said Lawrence Okolie to Boxing King Media.

“Of course, I’ll win every time, but it’s about showing those little bits of personability that may get left in the changing room because I’m so eager to win.

“I know I was an overweight kid. I worked at Mcdonald’s. I went from being an Olympian to being a British, Commonwealth, European, and World champion. I’m very happy with how my life is going.

“Obviously, you can’t please everyone all the time,” Okolie said. “Some of my favorite fighters have been on top and taken a loss, and they’re nobody, right?

“I’ve seen Anthony Joshua, one of the best heavyweights, absolutely revolutionize how British boxing is right now. He lost twice to another outstanding fighter [Oleksandr Usyk], and he’s gone. I can’t internalize that.

“I’ve got to look at myself as a person. The same as I don’t look at the belt and say, ‘This is who I am. This makes me.’ It’s an object.  Obviously, it’s a title for being the best at what you’re doing at one particular time, but at one point, I’m not going to be a cruiserweight.

“I’m going to retire, and the belt is going to go to the next WBO world champion or whatever belts I win. So, I don’t really fixate on that kind of stuff. I fixate on myself, which is why I’m able to come in and box in front of thousands of people and have a world of pressure on me and just roll with it,” said Okolie.