WITH ANY other striker coming out of the first round, any win would have been enough. However, for Lawrence Okolie, a man who is used to winning fights but lost to the fans, there has never been a question about what he needed from today (May 24) in the fight for the WBC bridgerweight belt in Poland. The truth is, he needed to do more than beat Lucasz Rozanski, the champion, to revive his career. He needed to hit her in a flashy and eye-catching way. He needed to make a statement.
This was all part of an ongoing plan, something Okolie talked about during his speech Debate News on tuesday evening. He then confirmed the details of the program a few hours before the fight when he claimed that his goal – that is, his best result – would be a stoppage in the first round, ensuring both a quick night and a return to the old power hitting activities.
That he was able to continue to defend this impressive result, stopping Rozanski at the 2:55 mark of the first round after dropping him three times, speaks volumes. Not only is Okolie’s self-belief – something that was undoubtedly in need of improvement after losing his WBO cruiserweight title last week – but his boxing prowess has, in fact, never been in doubt. Indeed, in tonight’s testimony, Rozanski had never been hit harder or more accurately; the look on his face following Okolie’s first hand to eat the dead gift. He complained about how some right hands landed behind the head, yet the truth is that Okolie was too big, too tall, too sharp and too accurate for that particular shot: the right. When he let it go, he always didn’t fight Rozanski, even in the first minute, and it wasn’t long before the Pole was taken down to the canvas by his power. The first blow was clear, the second was a little messier, and the third, undoubtedly the choice of the team, saw Okolie turn his straight right hand into an uppercut, piercing Rozanski’s guard and making him look up on the bottom rope, his nerves. good and strong.
He did, to his credit, he managed to get him to his feet, Rozanski, but the referee, Daniel Van de Wiele, looked into the champion’s eyes and saw that the logical decision now was to avoid the inevitable. That’s exactly what he did, lifting the fight within three minutes.
Thirteen months ago, of course, the shoe was on the other foot, with Rozanski catching Allen Babic cold and forcing a first-round stoppage to win this very belt, the WBC bridgerweight crown. However, tonight he didn’t really have an answer for Okolie and it quickly became clear that Okolie is at a much higher level than Rozanski and Babic and that the presentation of the bridgerweight weight class is only between cruiserweight and heavyweight. , he can produce fights like this; a match made as a world title fight.
It remains to be seen where Okolie, 20-1 (15), goes from now. On one hand, tonight’s performance was a reminder of the 31-year-old’s power and incredible athleticism, yet, on the other hand, it was also a stark reminder of what the bridgerweight currently represents on the world stage. That said, it’s still very much a division in its infancy, as its talent is lacking in talent, so it would be a shame if Okolie, who says his cruiserweight days are behind him, sticks around for too long. . His hope, he told me earlier this week, is that other British cruiserweights may soon join him at bridgerweight, but that may be wishful thinking.
“I think that with the bridgeweight belt, if anyone feels like they want to get out there a little bit, they can,” he said on Tuesday. “I know (Richard) Riakporhe will probably struggle, and I know Chris (Billam-Smith) is too. If they want to dance at bridgerweight, we can do that. But we will see.”
Either way, Okolie should be commended tonight for winning the battle he needed to win and winning it the way it needed to be won. That, for any fighter, is always easier said than done, yet for someone like Lawrence Okolie, a man with a lot of expectations and a man whose past wins have been disappointing at times, this was arguably the most important win of his career to date.
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