Everest-conqueror Okolie is seeking new peaks
LAWRENCE OKOLIE has so many more mountains he wants to conquer in boxing despite becoming a world champion earlier this year.
The Londoner, 28, won the WBO world cruiserweight title in March, when he beat Krzysztof Glowacki, and makes his first defence against Dilan Prasovic on the Anthony Joshuaoleksandr Usyk undercard on Saturday night. Okolie said: “Being world champion is the point that everyone calls the top but it’s not really the top.
“You put your flag there, you talk about conquering it, you get your rest stop, you get the drinks in, the T-shirt, saying, ‘I climbed Mount Everest’.
“But there’s still more for the legendary climbers, the ones who go beyond that pat on the back, that T-shirt.
“The ones who say, ‘Hang on, there’s less help that way, it’s more dangerous, there’s less harness but less people who have done it’.
“So to get that sense of satisfaction I now need to push it as far as I can, going unbeaten.”
Going unbeaten is something his opponent at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has also achieved so far – Prasovic has 15 wins to his name, 12 of them before the final bell.
But Okolie says he is the one looking to put a marker down and stay at the top.
He added: “Being a history-maker will give me that sense of satisfaction, and even if it didn’t work out I’d still be happy that I pushed.”