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Okolie defends WBO cruiser title against Cieslak and lines up Briedis for unification

Lawrence Okolie with WBO title belt. Photo courtesy of Matchroom Boxing
Fighters Network
27
Feb

WBO cruiserweight champion Lawrence Okolie moved closer to a unification fight with Ring No. 1 Mairis Briedis with a battling 12-round win over Poland’s Michal Cieslak.

It was a hard and untidy affair but Okolie deserved the decision and won on all three cards, 117-110, 116-111 and 115-112.

Briedis was ringside and said he hoped they could set up a fight.

“Paramount,” Okolie said, when asked whether getting the ‘W’ was the most important thing. “It’s good to get that learning under my belt. I thought when I dropped him in the fifth I’d close the show…”



Okolie had shaken the Pole in the first and dropped him with a right hand in Round 5 but the momentum came and went.

“He did 12 rounds but he didn’t maintain the distance enough,” said Okolie’s trainer, Shane McGuigan. “He didn’t look his best but he got the win.”

Okolie was landing and throwing more but he didn’t have the range in the early going. He stiffened Cieslak’s legs with a long right in the third and the same shot put Cieslak over for a count in Round 5 and the Pole’s legs betrayed him from another right near the end of the round.

Occasionally the visitor would switch southpaw but he was struggling to have his own success. Okolie was defensively astute and despite many Poles in the crowd making themselves heard, Cieslak was unable to really assert himself.

At times, it was messy but Cieslak was becoming increasingly game and aggressive, happy to engage in close and in clinches, making Okolie work for any success and any breather.

The champion was one-dimensional, lining the challenger up for a right behind his pawing left and it became a mauling affair in the eighth and Cieslak landed a big left hook in the ninth.

It was tough and physical without being brutal and gruelling but Okolie always seemed to be in the slight ascendency against a very hard and capable opponent.

Okolie, by the way, was walked to the ring by Anthony Joshua and UFC star Israel Adesanya.

Tokyo 2020 gold medallist Galal Yafai sparkled on his professional debut with an impressive fifth-round win over Mexico’s Carlos Vado Bautista.

The visitor took some heavy stick through each round, staring with heavy lefts from the southpaw Yafai in the opening session. Yafai methodically broke Bautista up and in Round 5 piled on the pressure and dropped Bautista with a straight left.

The Mexican’s compassionate corner withdrew him before the action could resume.
Yafai is a brilliant prospect and looked terrifyingly good. He appeared to be the veteran in there.

Bautista falls to 10-5-1.

A battered and bruised Jordan Gill produced a stunning right hand to win a gruelling fight against 30-6 Frenchman Karim Guerfi to earn the European featherweight title. Gill was dropped in Round 7 and also came through a horrible looking DDT-type wrestling manoeuvre that clearly left him groggy before he uncorked a stunning ninth-round shot to end matters conclusively and referee Thomas Walser didn’t even count. Gill is now 27-1-1.

Anthony Fowler moved up to middleweight and got rounds under his belt in his first fight since losing to Liam Smith in December. He scored a comfortable 10-round win over Poland’s Lukasz Maciec by margins of 99-93, 99-92 and 99-91.

Heavyweight Fabio Wardley is now 13-0 following a two-round win over West Virginia’s Daniel Martz, who was down twice before the end came.

Campbell Hatton, prospect son of Ricky, scored a sixth-round stoppage of Joe Ducker, who felt he could have heard the final bell as there were only around 30 seconds left. Ducker is 9-9-2 and Hatton improves to 6-0.

There were also victories for heavyweight prospect Demsey McKean, now 20-0, Olympian Cheavon Clarke making his debut and southpaw light-heavyweight John Hedges.

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