Inside Lawrence Okolie’s startling move to heavyweight

Sign up to our free sport newsletter for all the latest news on everything from cycling to boxing Sign up to our free sport email for all the latest news Sign up to our free sport email for all the latest news SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. open image in gallery Okolie dispatched Hussein Muhamed in the very first round However, weights are deceptive, and, oddly, Okolie weighed 37lb heavier than Oleksandr Usyk did when the Ukrainian beat Tyson Fury back in May. All boxers, especially good heavyweights, refer to their optimum weight, and cruiserweights who have made the passage up and then won the world heavyweight title seldom move far above their chosen weight. When Haye beat the “Beast from the East”, the name given to Nikolai Valuev, to win the world heavyweight title, he weighed just 2lb heavier; Valuev was 10 inches taller and 99lb bigger. “Now, there will be no holding – he's at his weight and the heavyweights are on notice.” In the mad, mad world of heavyweights in 2024, where men aged 58 fight, and others will divide over $120m in fights, it is worth remembering that Muhammad Ali won his first title tipping the scales at just 210lb, and even Big George Foreman, one of the sport’s scariest men and considered an ogre at the time, was just 217lb when he won the world title – both were several inches shorter than Okolie.