Art Of The Outside: Lawrence Okolie Wins WBO Title With Emphatic KO

FALL RIVER, MA –  The 6’5” Briton did a beautiful job of range management to win the WBO cruiserweight title last Saturday. Even better, to do it via viscous 6th round knockout. Okolie had no issue implementing his long reach to keep the shorter man at bay. The jab and right hand to the body kept the distance nice and long. The straight right hand and right hook were paired off each perfectly to pour through his opponents defense. Okolie picked on his opponents head movement and timed a 1-2 perfectly to starch his man.

His opponent/victim was 2x former champion Krystof Glowacki who looked old at just 34 years. Glowacki has been through the ringer in the ring including a pair of memorable matches with Marco Huck and former division kingpin Oleksandr Usyk. The loss to Okolie makes two in a row for the Pole. Getting TKO’ed in 3 by IBF title holder Maruis Bredis in a dirty fight that saw Glowacki dropped with an illegal elbow he never really recovered from.

With father time ever on the march and the sheer mileage on his body, who knows what the future has in store? It’s possible he goes back to the drawing board to rework his style and come back better. But history tells us it isn’t likely. It maybe time for the 2x champ to start thinking about hanging ‘em up.

The future for Lawrence Okolie seems far more stable and predictable, at least in the short term. The match making mostly writing itself and all the players falling in line. Lawrence called out Marius Bredis in what is sure to be another classic at 200lbs.