Anthony Joshua’s former sparring partner vacates world title and vows to conquer Oleksandr Usyk as heavyweight champion
ANTHONY JOSHUA and Tyson Fury’s former sparring partner has vacated his world title belt and could now challenge the former British champions.
Lawrence Okolie, 31, has made the bold play of moving up a weight division into the heavyweight category.
However, he is no stranger to fighting with some of the best the division has to offer.
Okolie spent years sparring with two-time heavyweight champion and Olympic silver-medallist Joshua while they were in the Team GB set-up.
In 2018 he was also a sparring partner in the USA for the Gypsy King before his first fight with Deontay Wilder.
More recently, he was in the ring against Daniel Dubois, who successfully defended his IBF heavyweight title after KOing AJ last month.
But Okolie, originally from Hackney, London, has decided he fancies his own crack at the heavyweight titles.
The Sauce is already a two-weight boxing champion, having claimed the WBO cruiserweight and WBC bridgerweight crowns.
He was ordered to defend his bridgerweight title against Kevin Lerena, but has vacated that belt in a bid to become a three-weight champion.
A WBC statement confirmed the move, saying: “The WBC has received official confirmation from bridgerweight champion Lawrence Okolie that he has decided to relinquish his world bridgerweight championship in order to pursue his dream of becoming heavyweight champion.
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“Consequently Interim champion Kevin Lerena is hereby confirmed as WBC world bridgerweight champion.
“First I would like to state how proud and happy I was to compete for and win the WBC bridgerweight belt.
“After much consideration it is with a heavy heart that I have to unfortunately relinquish the WBC bridgerweight belt respectfully requesting to be rated in the top five in the heavyweight division.”
The Brit’s heavyweight debut is yet to be confirmed.
If he were to win a heavyweight belt he would be the first three-weight champion to include the heavyweight division since Roy Jones Jr. – who held titles across four divisions – did so in 2003.
The legendary Bob Fitzsimmons was the first to complete the achievement with the heavyweight division in 1903 – with middleweight, heavyweight and light heavyweight all claimed.
On his chances Okolie previously said he would “fancy” a go at Usyk – who himself is a two-weight champion.
He told iFL TV: “I fancy that, I feel like everyone else has had their shot [at Usyk] and I want to go and test it.
“It might sound crazy to other people and I look at him and he is sensational and very talented, but I have attributes that he hasn’t had to box against for a long time including speed and stuff like that.”
Okolie has one defeat on his career record, with 20 wins – 15 by KO – and one defeat to Chris Billam-Smith in May 2023 that saw him lose the WBO cruiserweight title.