Thursday, 19 January 2017

2016 Olympian, Lawrence Okolie turns pro with Matchroom.

24 year old’s Lawrence Okolie has made the bold decision to jump into the paid ranks under the guidance of Matchroom boxing..   Back in 2012, whilst Anthony Joshua was grabbing Olympic gold, Okolie was working at McDonalds with Olympic glory a mere daydream...
Okolie began boxing in 2010, really just a personal journey to lose weight but inspired by Joshua’s achievements at the games, Okolie pushed the envelope and after landing back to back University titles in 2014 and 2015 he grabbed a place on the  British Lionhearts WSOB team before taking gold in the AIBA European Qualifier in Turkey, a victory that earned him a dream spot on the GB squad for the 2016 olympics in Rio..
Okolie is the first of the 2016 Team GB squad to turn professional, and despite his mere 26 fights has huge ambitions for the exciting road ahead.
“I want to be the best cruiserweight that Britain has seen,” said Okolie. “David Haye has done great things, so has Johnny Nelson and many others, but I want to cement my legacy, have my name go down in history and maybe follow Haye by winning the heavyweight crown too."
“I want to get some excitement going in the division, not just from the fans but also have other cruiserweights training hard and wanting to fight me, because I want to be in great and exciting fights. I want to have six to eight fights in 2017 and I’ll be looking to get six to eight knockouts – I mean business."
The very day that Anthony Joshua won Olympic gold, Okolie went in to the McDonalds where he worked and expressed his intentions to focus solely on his boxing and cut his hours by half..
Lawrence has campaigned for the last 6 years at the 201 Lb amateur heavyweight limit, but looks to debut as a cruiserweight, with a heavyweight future in mind.. Lawrence is a likeable young man, and a natural athlete, he has some great ingredients to propel him to the top as he gains the valuable experience it's gonna take to get there..   Lawrence Okolie, I salute you.

No comments:

Post a Comment