East London’s Lawrence Okolie remains unbeaten after successfully defending his WBO Cruiserweight belt against Michael Cieslak. The 29-year-old won by a unanimous points decision at the O2 arena.
Coming into the fight many pundits were split on their choice of who they believed would be victorious, as both fighters headed into the bout with strong records of 17 wins from 17 fights for Okolie and 21 from 22 for Cieslak with 29 knockouts between them.
Sluggish
Just over 6,000 fight fans witnessed an overall sluggish fight which Okolie dominated from the first round without really producing the speed and power that helped propel him to become WBO Cruiserweight champion.
Round 1 saw both fighters engage in their fair share of grappling with few clean shots landing before Okolie connected with a right hook to Cieslak’s face with 90 seconds gone. The momentum when throwing the punch and Cieslak holding on almost took both fighters through the ropes and onto ringside fans.
Rounds 2 and 3 saw Okolie on the front foot controlling the centre of the ring but not landing the cleanest of punches as both fighters did a lot of holding on.
Continuing after the bell
An even fourth round closed with both fighters swinging shots after the bell had gone, getting the crowd going with countless Polish, Nigerian and UK flags being waved ecstatically.
With just over a minute to go of the fifth round Okolie threw three quick left jabs to off balance Cieslak before flooring him a right overhand, flush on the side of his face. Fortunately for Cieslak he managed to hold out for the rest of the round as Okolie was unable to finish his opponent off.
Both fighters appeared to take the sixth round off which may just have benefited Cieslak more as after the bell sounded for round seven he landed a succession of punches to Okolie’s head and body which Okolie absorbed well while managing to evade further trouble.
Drained and Reckless
With more than half of the scheduled 12 rounds complete both fighters appeared mentally drained as they became reckless, swinging, missing and holding throughout the remainder of the fight.
This was the first time Okolie had gone so far in a world title match and he was gaining invaluable experience.
When the final bell rang both fighters lofted their arms towards the sky indicating they both felt they’d done enough for victory, though I think its a natural reaction/motion when two fighters have finished a fight standing.
The final scorecard read; 117-110, 116-111, 115-112, with all three judges scoring Okolie ahead throughout the fight as he went on to successfully defend his World Title for the second time.
“I Allowed It To Get Messy.”
After the fight Okolie admitted that he could and will perform much better in the future, telling Five Live Boxing’, “It was a flat performance and I allowed it to get messy. I will go back to the gym, go again and make it right next time.”
Next up for Okolie are possible unification bouts either with Ring and IBF champion Mairis Briedis or WBC champion Llanga Makubu who was knocked out by the Tony Bellew back in 2016.
