The United Kingdom has a new world champion after ‘The Sauce’ Lawrence Okolie landed the vacant WBO cruiserweight title in London.
Okolie crushed Krzysztof Glowacki to be crowned the new WBO ruler in just his sixteenth fight at The SSE Arena, Wembley, live on Sky Sports Box Office (UK) and DAZN in the U.S.
The Briton unloaded a devastating finishing punch to drop Poland’s Glowacki heavily in the sixth round.
Referee Marcus McDonnell waved off the fight to confirm the coronation.
The unbeaten 28-year-old from Hackney had emulated the likes of Tony Bellew, David Haye, and Johnny Nelson, who previously held world crowns in the 200lb class,
“I don’t think it has sunk in yet,” said Okolie. “It’s nice hearing you say it. I’m happy.
LAWRENCE OKOLIE RELIEF
“For me, it’s more of a relief. The potential has been there for over a year. I’m happy to get the victory. Now and forever, I’ll be a world champion.
“I was just really focused on putting on a good performance. I’m physically powerful and punch hard. I’m very fit, so that I can win on just those attributes at a certain level.
“I really focused on not rushing any shots because he’s very dangerous with counter shots, and he’s very heavy-handed.
“His jabs were very solid, so I had to be very meticulous in keeping the distance. It was a good clean performance.
“All of the British former World Champions wishing me good fortune really touched me – shout out to them.
“From every run that I ever did, losing all of that weight, deciding to take a risk, having my parents support me financially when I couldn’t afford to get the bus down to the gym for training.
“To see it all pay off with a World Title is a dream come true – never give up. We can go on from here. I need to keep pushing myself to prove myself as the best.”
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