Lawrence Okolie opens up on leaving SugarHill Steward
Former WBO cruiserweight world champion Lawrence Okolie has revealed the reason behind his change of trainer, following his decision to leave SugarHill Steward after just two fights with the esteemed American in his corner.
The Londoner left Shane McGuigan in favour of a move to Kronk Gym’s Steward, nephew of the late Emanuel Steward and who also famously trains Tyson Fury. However, ‘The Sauce’ didn’t seem to have the same instant connection with Steward as the WBC heavyweight champion appeared to.
The month after the appointment, the Rio 2016 Olympian defended his world title against unbeaten New Zealander David Light, but it was a performance that was criticised by the masses for it’s lack of entertainment, causing many spectators to leave before the final bell.
Just two months later, Okolie performed even worse resulting in a first career defeat when former stablemate Chris Billam-Smith claimed a majority-decision win over the Londoner, in yet another controversial performance from Okolie, who was deducted two points for holding during the contest.
Now Okolie has revealed that he has left SugarHill Steward, opting to work under Joe Gallagher in Manchester, who trains the likes of Liam and Callum Smith, and in an interview with Boxing Social, Okolie explained the reasoning behind his decision.
“Me and him [Steward] are still [on] very good [terms]. I’ve never really had a bad relationship with any coach that I have or have had, we just keep it pretty professional. Logistically, it doesn’t work [with SugarHill], if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.
“I haven’t had a fight in a year, I wasn’t out in America so we just said ‘okay, cool let’s give it a little break and then fortunately I met Joe [Gallagher] and went down that road and that is where we are at’.”
The Hackney hitter will fight under Gallagher for the first time as he moves up to the bridgerweight division to challenge Lukasz Rozanski (15-0) for the WBC world title on May 24th in Poland.