Lawrence Okolie is negotiating with two-time world heavyweight title challenger Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz. The previous WBO cruiserweight champion (21-1, 16 KOs) is taking a gradual method to acclimating to the heavyweight division.
The Cuban Ortiz (34-3, 29 KOs) turns 46 on March 29 however remains to be harmful on account of his energy, dimension, and technical abilities. His ring IQ and athletic capacity are above the 6’5″ Okolie’s. If Ortiz lands on the uncoordinated ‘Sauce” Okolie, he may knock him out and spoil his heavyweight ambitions.
Okolie vs. Ortiz In The Works
Okolie’s two heavyweight fights have been in opposition to Hussein Muhamed and Lukasz Rozanski. Each of these guys had been horrible and utterly ineffective in creating Okolie in an actual sense to ramp him up for a world title shot. Nevertheless, if the concept is to feed Okolie tomato cans to make him look invincible, matching him in opposition to some of these fighters is the way in which to go.
In Lawrence’s final battle at cruiserweight, he was thrashed by Chris Billiam-Smith, shedding a 12-round majority determination on Might 27, 2023. That battle was the writing on the wall for Okolie that his time was up as a ‘champion’ at Cruiserweight. Okolie wouldn’t do properly with the proficient new crop of fighters, Jai Opetaia and David Nyika. Therefore, he moved as much as heavyweight to reinvent himself.
Ortiz is coming off a first-round knockout victory over Francisco Cordero final 12 months on January thirteenth in Colombia. “King Kong’ Ortiz had been inactive for 2 years earlier to that after shedding an in depth 12-round unanimous determination to former world champion Andy Ruiz on September 14, 2022.
Ortiz gave Ruiz pure hell in that battle, touchdown incessantly on the chunky 268-pounder. If not for Ruiz dropping Luiz in rounds two and 7, the Cuban would have received. In Ortiz’s earlier battle on January 1, 2022, he knocked out former heavyweight champion Charles Martin within the sixth spherical.
Former cruiserweight champion Lawrence Okolie, now campaigning at heavyweight, is in talks to battle Luis Ortiz within the U.Okay., a supply informed ESPN. Ortiz, 45, returned final January in a shake-off-the-rust battle. It was his first battle since a aggressive loss to Andy Ruiz in 2022.
— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) January 20, 2025
