LAWRENCE OKOLIE has been impressed with one of his new promotional stable-mates in recent months.
The former WBO cruiserweight and WBC bridgerweight champion debuts at heavyweight tomorrow night in Birmingham against Hussein Muhamed, 18-1 (14 KOs). This year there have been a number of firsts for Okolie, 20-1 (15 KOs). Signing with Queensberry, joining Joe Gallagher’s gym and moving to heavyweight where he hopes to win a third world title.
Amongst the number of fights at heavyweight, particularly in Riyadh, the current IBF champion Daniel Dubois has caught the eye of Okolie. The 31-year-old spoke to Boxing News yesterday about the man who is now one of his new rivals.
“If you look at his run of form it’s been ‘Big Baby’ Miller, Hrgovic [and] Anthony Joshua. These are three top quality heavyweights that he’s been in there with, beaten and slugged it out and stopped two of them. He’s on a great run of form.”
In the future Okolie, already sitting at fifth in the WBC heavyweight rankings, could face Dubois if one or both have a world title up for grabs. The IBF title holder will be next out on February 22 in Riyadh defending his belt against Joseph Parker.
“That’s a great fight,” Okolie said.
“It’s a risky fight for Dan’. We’ve seen Parker in there with Zhang, we’ve seen him in there with Wilder who are two massive punchers. And he’s been able to negate them and get points decisions over both of them. It’s a tough one.
“If Dan’ does get on top of him and overwhelms him with power punching he could get a stoppage. But if he’s not careful the rounds could slip away and Parker could win a decision. However, Parker has gained a lot of size over the last few months so I don’t know if that’s going to slow him down and then he’ll be in the pocket too much. We have to wait and see.”