WBO cruiserweight champion Lawrence ‘The Sauce’ Okolie 16-0 (13) has declared his aim to become the unified world champion at 200-pounds like his hero David Haye.
Haye held the WBC, WBA and WBO cruiserweight titles in 2008 before moving up to heavyweight. He retired in in 2018 with a record of 28-4 (26).
Okolie will make the first defence of his WBO strap against mandatory challenger Dilan Prasovic 15-0 (12) of Montenegro on Saturday night on the undercard of the heavyweight championship fight between Anthony Joshua 24-1 (22) and Oleksandr Usyk 18-0 (13) at Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium in Tottenham, England.
The 28-year-old Londoner looked up to Haye as a kid, with posters of the cruiserweight champion on his bedroom walls.
Okolie, who claimed the WBO bauble with a dominant sixth-round knockout of experienced Pole Krzysztof Glowacki 31-3 (19) at Wembley Arena in London last March, has called on his promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing to tee up fights against the other cruiserweight titleholders once he gets past Prasovic.
Latvian Mairis Briedis 27-1 (19) is the IBF and Ring magazine world champion. He will defend his titles against Artur Mann 17-1 (9) at Arena Riga in Riga, Latvia on October 15.
Undefeated Armenian-born Frenchman Arsen Goulamirian 26-0 (18) is the WBA boss while Ilunga Makabu 28-2 (25) of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the WBC kingpin.
Okolie says he doesn’t care which titleholder he faces next.
“This is a mandatory defence and once this is out of the way, Eddie Hearn knows what I want,” Okolie said.
“I had pictures of David Haye on my wall as a kid with all the belts and I want to recreate that picture myself.
“In the cruiserweights, probably the best one in this country has been David Haye as he unified three out of four belts and then went up to heavyweight to win a world title.
“I want to go down as the best cruiserweight in Britain and the fact I won the world title at a reasonable age means there’s an opportunity to do that and be undisputed.
“I think it’s possible as long as I win this one and then a unification or two. I’ve got a couple of years to go down as one of Britain’s best cruiserweights, so I have to go make it happen.”
Also on the Joshua-Usyk card former WBA super middleweight champion Callum Smith 27-1 (19) will make his light heavyweight debut against Lenin Castillo 21-3-1 (16) over 10 rounds.
The 31-year-old Smith will be having his first fight under new trainer Buddy McGirt. It will be Smith’s first bout since losing to Mexican superstar Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez 56-1-2 (38) in December.
“I was world champion at 168-pounds and I believe I’m good enough to become world champion at 175-pounds,” Smith said.
“This is a good first step into this division and I feel confident with Buddy that I can do the exact same at this weight.”
