LAW OF THE LAND
Okolie: Winning all world titles this year would be my perfect legacy before stepping up
LAWRENCE OKOLIE is ready for a knockout 2022 before he leaves cruiserweight to join the big boys of boxing.
Okolie makes a second defence of his WBO world cruiserweight title at London’s O2 Arena tonight when he takes on Michal Cieslak (below) of Poland.
And he hopes their dust-up will be a final stepping stone to the unification fights he so craves against WBA champion Arsen Goulamirian, WBC top dog Ilunga Makabu or IBF and Ring king Mairis Briedis.
And Okolie wants to do it before he finally steps up to the heavyweight division to challenge Tyson Fury,
Anthony Joshua and
Oleksandr Usyk.
Asked what mark he thinks he will leave behind on the cruiserweight division, Okolie said: “It depends how the next three or four fights go.
“If I’m able to knock out Cieslak, it’s a good step in the right direction because he is probably the best non-champion I could box right now.
“He’s up there in the top five or six. Then, after that, if the other champions give me the opportunities, I will go and handle them.
“In my perfect 2022, I would stop Cieslak with the first punch, 10 to 20 seconds, then go into a unification match with any of the champions.
“Win that and have two belts. Then, hopefully, two other champions will box each other and I’ll face the winner for all four belts and the Ring magazine title.
“I’d win that as well, one punch, first round, and that would be me undisputed, unified, undefeated cruiserweight world champion. “And then, if there was time this year, I’d move up and, whoever are the heavyweight world champions at the time, meet one of them – and win that.”
Okolie will step up to heavyweight sooner rather than later and he is confident he can make a real impact given his natural size – he is 6ft 5in – and his talent.
He added: “There’s not a strict timeline, but I’ll need to reflect on how it has been making weight this time. As soon as it becomes
too difficult and starts to affect my performance, then I’m off.
“It’s hard to say whether it’s becoming increasingly difficult because I always end up thinking, ‘I can’t make it’, and then it’s, ‘Oh, that wasn’t so bad’, when I made it.
“It’s the week before, watching what I’m eating and figuring out
what my sparring weight is, and what I want to get in the ring at.
“But I just want to be able to eat as much as I want!”
There has been talk of Saul Alvarez taking a fight at cruiserweight and, while Okolie would be open to that challenge, he thinks a smaller man would be a more viable opponent for the Mexican superstar.
He said: “It depends who he fights. Him versus Makabu, he has a good chance because Makabu is not that big and they’ll probably meet at a catchweight.
“He’s a really good body puncher and is hard to hit clean for guys his own weight, let alone bigger guys, given his conditioning.
“But, at the same time, one shot from someone who weighs 200lb-plus and can probably knock out a heavyweight will definitely show.”