Home Boxing News Lawrence Okolie and Richard Riakporhe react after their scuffle at Creed III...

Lawrence Okolie and Richard Riakporhe react after their scuffle at Creed III premiere goes viral

Lawrence Okolie

WBO cruiserweight champion Lawrence Okolie 18-0 (14) and rising contender Richard Riakporhe 16-0 (12) have both given their version of events after a physical altercation at the European premiere on the new movie Creed III in London last week.

The 30-year-old Okolie, who is due to make a mandatory title defence against undefeated New Zealander David Light 20-0 (12) in Manchester in one month’s time, admitted to walking up to Riakporhe but insists it wasn’t his intention to start a fight, merely to provoke him.

“To be honest, yes! I saw him enter into the place and it’s not like I hate him,” Okolie told the Toe2Toe podcast. “I walked up to him and said ‘hey mate, you alright?’ He was kind of shocked that I walked up to him.

“I said ‘you been calling me out, now I’m here, live in the flesh so do you want to do this?’ He was like ‘yeah, I have been calling you out but now I’m here’ and I could see him really like getting pumped up.

“I was thinking, what’s wrong with this guy? ‘Relax brother and have a conversation’. Then he saw red, he pushed me, and it turned into a whole ruckus.

“I didn’t walk up to him with the idea of having a fight. I walked up to him to egg him on a bit and say ‘let’s make it happen’. It turned into what it turned into.”

Riakporhe, 33, is fresh off an impressive fourth-round knockout of Polish southpaw and former WBO 200-pound champion Krzysztof Glowacki 32-4 (20) in Manchester last month. Okolie stopped Glowacki in six frames two years ago to claim the vacant WBO belt.

With Riakporhe’s star on the rise and Okolie already established as a titleholder, there is groundswell of support for an all-British showdown between the pair in what promises to be a tasty affair.

Riakporhe says we can consider last week’s scuffle a prelude to the main event.

“So I was just having a great time, I watched this film Creed, it was an amazing film,” Riakporhe told talkSPORT.

“I was just catching up with a few friends of mine and I saw Lawrence just come out of nowhere and start talking to me.

“I felt disrespected, he came into my space. And then I just saw red, I don’t know what happened after that, everybody was getting separated…

“I heard the clip is doing numbers, it’s gone viral. It is what it is.

“The great thing was nobody threw hands. We’re professional boxers, we’re supposed to conduct ourselves properly and it’s not really great look, but I can do better, I’m a human being. Same goes for Okolie.

“But when we get in the ring it’s gonna be 18+, it’s not gonna be PG I can tell you.”

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