awrence Okolie has established himself the aspiration to be one of the excellent cruiserweights of all time.
The 28-yr-previous might nonetheless obtain himself among the boxing elite but he was barely examined in the initial defence of his WBO title versus Dilan Prasovic.
Immediately after a cagey initial round in which he employed his jab to great impact, he floored his Montenegrin opponent in the second round and once again in the third, Prasovic not growing from his knees and the referee halting the contest. It extended the Hackney fighter’s history in the professional ranks to 17 wins from 17 bouts.
Okolie had received the title back again inside a virtually empty stadium again in March. This time, the stands were being filling up for the Anthony Joshua struggle, providing him the type of assist he previously mentioned he experienced craved.
His concentrate on is a shot at Mairis Briedis but struggling with obligatory opponent Prasovic gave little indication how he may well fare.
Earlier, Callum Smith’s debut at mild-heavyweight was limited-lived but thriving as he knocked out Lenin Castillo in just the next round.
For Smith, it was his initially fight considering the fact that generating the phase-up from tremendous-middleweight, acquiring dropped to Canelo Alvarez at the end of past calendar year.
Campbell Hatton was mightily lucky to get absent with a slender win above Sonni Martinez as he stepped up to 6 rounds for the first time at light-weight.
Prior to the battle, Hatton mentioned he had only shown 20 for every cent of his probable and, when there had been glimpses of an enjoyable fighter, he way too frequently left himself broad open although throwing punches wildly.
Uruguayan Martinez appeared confident he experienced gained the struggle and, in truth of the matter, deserved to as Hatton appeared to try far too challenging to reside up to the household title and dad Ricky’s explosive style in the ring.
Hatton seemed fatigued in the aftermath and, no question, relieved at the outcome, which was booed by substantially of the group inside of the stadium.