How hard Lawrence Okolie must have had to work to make the 200-pound cruiserweight limit. That’s perhaps the first thing a viewer may have had when watching Okolie weigh in today ahead of his heavyweight debut tomorrow night. “The Sauce,” as the former WBO cruiserweight champ and former WBC bridgerweight champ is known, tipped in at a whopping 260.8 pounds for his fight with Hussein Muhamed, who came in at 261.2 pounds.
Okolie, 20-1(15) looked huge on the scale today, certainly in comparison to how he looked back in the early summer of last year, this when the 31 year old Londoner was engaged in WBO cruiserweight title fights. It’s fair to say there were some raised eyebrows when Okolie hit the scale today. The big question now is, how well can Okolie carry that poundage, and how will he cope if he has to fight into the later rounds? In all likelihood, Okolie will get Muhammad out of there pretty quickly, but will Okolie continue to weigh as much as he did today in future fights?
Muhamed, 18-1(14) has a good-looking record but he has never faced anyone with the pedigree of Okolie. Maybe Okolie, who said this week that he finds it great being able to eat three full meals a day now, compared to when he had to cut back on food to make cruiserweight, has taken tomorrow night’s fight lightly? Let’s hope not.
Okolie, though, has predicted a KO win, with it to come inside four rounds. How far can Okolie go as a heavyweight, and again, will that additional 60 pounds help or hinder him as a fighter?
Tomorrow’s full line-up from London:
Brad Pauls-Denzel Bentley
Sam Noakes-Ryan Walsh
Sean Noakes-Matthew Rennie
Royston Barnie-Smith-Andres Navarrete
Aloys Youmbi-Lewis Oakford
Billy Adams-Jonatas de Oliveira
George Crotty-Dylan Courtney
Solomon Dacres-David Adeleye *(pick for fight of the night)
Lawrence Okolie-Hussein Muhamed
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