Fans boo and leave early as Lawrence Okolie BEATS David Light in underwhelming WBO title defence

After over a year out of the ring, it was an underwhelming return for Lawrence Okolie as he cruised to a points win over David Light.

‘The Sauce’ defended his WBO cruiserweight world title to move on to bigger challenges in the future, but it was a dull fight that left fans unsatisfied with what they had seen.

Okolie and Light did not make for a good style match up

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But Okolie did enough to claim victory

Fans were not impressed with action as they could be seen leaving early

Okolie started fast if a little wild, throwing some looping right hands, as the Brit was comfortably winning the rounds, but seemed to be struggling to settle into a rhythm.

Despite not enjoying much success, Light managed to stay in there as the rounds passed by and he frustrated Okolie by turning it into a somewhat scrappy affair.

As the fight went on the quality declined, as boos and whistles could be heard from the crowd and some fans even left the arena early.

In rounds ten and eleven Okolie turned up the tempo a little and had Light on shaky legs on two separate occasions, but the New Zealander showed a good chin to hang on in there.

The Brit was deducted a point in round eleven for holding, but this did not affect the result, as Okolie comfortably won with scores of 116-112, 117-110 and 119-108 on the judges’ scorecards.

Asked to rate his performance, Okolie said: “Probably like a 5/6. I wasn’t sure if I’d feel ring rust, but I definitely did.

He continued: “David Light was extremely tough and he had a good tactic of moving around to his right.

Okolie will now hope to move on to bigger fights against the likes of Riakporhe or other champions in the cruiserweight division

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“But, at the end of the day, there’s no need to make excuses – just get better. I just couldn’t get the last shot to drop him and get him out of there because he was very tough and very good with his hand defences.”

As for his next fight, Okolie said: “I will go in the ring and fight anyone. If they’re watching this and they think ‘Lawrence is rubbish, I can do this, I can do that’, come and find out.

“I’ll put it on the line against anyone and if they’re good enough to beat me, they are, and if not I carry on winning.”

Okolie previously told talkSPORT that he either wants a unification with one of the other champions in the cruiserweight division or there is a potential domestic dust up with bitter rival, Richard Riakporhe, after the pair almost came to blows at the recent Creed 3 premiere.

After that, however, Okolie wants to take on the heavyweight division, as he said: “As soon as it becomes unhealthy I’ll move up.

“And as soon as the Richard, the unifications start seeming like they’re not going to happen then bye, let’s dance with the big boys now.”

Joshua vs Franklin live on talkSPORT

Anthony Joshua’s quest to become a three-time heavyweight champion begins on 1 April against Jermaine Franklin and talkSPORT will be live from London’s O2 to bring you coverage of the fight.

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Source: TalkSport | Read More