Lawrence Okolie looks different ahead of his heavyweight debut.
The former WBO cruiserweight champion left the division behind after losing his title in a first career defeat against Chris Billam Smith, who recently dropped the belt against Gilberto Ramirez, in May 2023.
Okolie stepped up to briderweight for his next fight. ‘The Sauce’ weighed 223lbs before knocking out WBC champion Łukasz Różański inside one round earlier this year.
Now he’s piled on even more weight for his first fight at heavyweight, which could lead to an eventual clash with the winner of Oleksandr Usyk vs Tyson Fury 2 or IBF champion Daniel Dubois after his fight with Joseph Parker.
Lawrence Okolie has bulked up for heavyweight debut
Under the guidance of new promoter Frank Warren, Okolie will make his heavyweight debut against 18-1 German Hussein Muhamed at London’s OVO Arena on Saturday night.
The day before they are scheduled to trade blows, the Englishman shocked everyone when he stepped on the scales to show off his physique.
Okolie was carrying a lot of extra fat on his stomach in viral weigh-in footage.
‘The Sauce’ tipped the scales at 260.8lbs after fighting under the 200lbs cruiserweight limit just 19 months ago.
Boxing fans couldn’t believe how different Okolie looked at heavyweight.
One person said: “What on earth.”
Another added: “That’s a lot of timber around the waist, those arms still look like cruiserweight arms, oh dear!”
A third person commented: “Looks well out of shape.”
Someone else joked: “Looks like he ate Lawrence Okolie.”
Lawerence Okolie eyes vicious KO
Okolie is feeling confident, despite concerns about his heavyweight shape.
The 31-year-old believes he can knock out his opponent, who was stopped inside three rounds when he fought Zhan Kossobutskiy in November 2022.
After that, Muhammad took a big break from boxing before beating Ali Kiydin and earning the chance to upset one of the biggest names in British boxing.
“This is the heavyweight division,” Okolie said.
“It’s all about knockouts and I’ve got several different ways I’m going to be able to do it with Hussein
“I’ve obviously got the speed advantage. I wonder, even at heavyweight, I believe I’ll be the bigger puncher. I’ll be picking clever shots to the head, clever shots to the body, and just showing boxing skill and then we’ll box our way to a big knockout.”