Lawrence ‘The Sauce’ Okolie vs Kevin ‘The KO Kid’ Lerena
The WBC bridgerweight champion, Lawrence Okolie (20-1, 15KO), has reached an agreement with the Interim champion, Kevin Lerena (30-3, 14KO), for the mandatory fight they must hold soon.
31-year-old Okolie comes into this fight after winning the WBC bridgerweight title in May by defeating the defending champion Lukasz Rozanski in his own backyard in Poland.
The hard-hitting Hackney man was dominant and powerful to down the champ three times in the first round to win with just five seconds remaining in the opener to become a two-time world titlist.
His sole career defeat to former teammate and close friend, Chris Billam-Smith, came in May 2023. The scrappy contest saw the defending WBO cruiserweight champ go down in rounds 4, 10, 11, and was deducted points in the 5th and 7th. Despite those deficits, one judge scored the championship contest as a draw! Fortunately, the other two at ringside saw fit, with scores of 115-108 and 116-107 to CBS.
Okolie had held the WBO belt for over two years with three successful defences. He moved up to bridgerweight after the loss, but took an entire year out before his next fight.
South African Lerena has moved between bridger and heavyweight recently, just recently losing a competitive battle against unbeaten Aussie Justis Huni.
Prior to that he won the WBC Interim bridgerweight title by defeating Ryad Merhy in May 2023 via unanimous decision, then achieved the same result against Senad Gashi six months on in November last year.
The southpaw was on a 17-fight win streak between 2015 to 2022, until he was stopped by now IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois in their dramatic battle at the Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium on the Fury-Chisora undercard.
‘The KO Kid’ had Dubois down three times in the first round and looked certain to rip away his WBA Regular heavyweight title until the Londoner, who has the highest KO ratio of the top 10 heavyweights, was able to turn it around to win in the third round. It remains the only stoppage on his 33-fight record.
The 32-year-old from Johannesburg is a former long-reigning IBO cruiserweight champion, who held the title between 2017-2020, never losing it in the ring.
Despite his many accolades, his 6’1″ stature will be considerably dwarfed by Okolie’s loftier 6’5″ frame.
Details of this attractive fight will be announced soon.