Londoner Lawrence Okolie made a dream start to life as a heavyweight with a first-round win over Hussein Muhamed at Wembley’s OVO Arena.
The former cruiserweight world champion landed a well-timed counter-right hand to send Germany’s Muhamed to the canvas with 46 seconds left in the round.
Muhamed, like Okolie, had only been beaten once before but was clearly out of his depth. He rose to his feet on the count of eight and stumbled towards the referee, who smartly ignored the away fighter’s protests and waved off the contest.
“As soon as I hit them, they start going. I’m ready for the best in the world,” Okolie said.
The 31-year-old jumped up divisions after losing his WBO cruiserweight title to Chris Billam-Smith last year.
He won the WBC bridgerweight title in May, before signing with promoter Frank Warren and stepping up to heavyweight.
Okolie weighed in at a whopping 18st 6lb on Friday, two and half stone heavier than his previous fight and more than four stone than he did against Billam-Smith.
He said he felt solid at the new weight.
“I felt tired having to make that [cruiserweight] – now I know every round I can be explosive and then recover,” Okolie explained.
The Hackney fighter has been criticized over the years for his excessive grappling and clinching – a style which, albeit often effective, resulted in many dull contests.
Though much tougher tests await, he delivered on his pre-fight promise of an explosive performance as Warren told the fighter to expect “big fights in 2025”.
SOURCE: bbc.com