Lawrence Okolie Blows Hot Ahead Of December 12 WBO Title Fight

England-based Nigerian-born boxer, Lawrence Okolie is talking tough ahead of his next bout, as he believe he has what it takes to clinch a major belt from his next fight on December 12, BSNSports.com.ng reports. Incidentally, Okolie will take on Krzysztof Glowacki for the vacant World Boxing Organisation (WBO) cruiserweight title on the undercard of fellow-Nigerian-born pugilist, Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua’s title defence against Kubrat Pulev at The O2 Arena in London. The chance to become a world champ came for Okolie (14-0, 11 KOs) after he claimed the European cruiserweight belt with a seventh-round stoppage of previously unbeaten Yves Ngabu in October last year, thereby capping a successful 2019 which saw the Hackney ace get four knockouts in as many fights. Similarly, Okolie’s next opponent (31-2, 19 KOs) knocked out Germany’s Marco Huck in eleven rounds to win the WBO title in 2015 before widely outpointing Steve Cunningham in his first defence. He suffered the first defeat of his career against Ukrainian pound-for-pound star Oleksandr Usyk in his next fight. The Polish southpaw earned the interim WBO title by decisioning Maxim Vlasov November 2018 but was stopped in three rounds by Latvia’s Mairis Briedis last year in a challenge for the full title, and Okolie believes he stands a good chance of becoming the new champ come December 12. Okolie declared: “It has been a long and hard road to get here,” said Okolie. “I’m very excited and blessed to have this opportunity; I’ll be grabbing it with both hands. I will become Britain’s next world champion on December 12. “Glowacki is a great fighter and he is someone that I looked up to when I first started boxing. I believe he won the world title the same year I was pushing to try and get on the Olympic team when I’d had 15 amateur fights. “He’s a former two-time world champion and has only lost twice to two elite opponents. He’s going to be my biggest test on paper as a professional. He is a consummate professional and will do everything in his power to wiw. “I have to be on my A-game, and I will be. I’m happy that throughout my career I have faced the best opposition that I could have at every stage. This is just another one of those.”