“Right now, I want him to go out there on Saturday and get a sensational knockout,” said Sugar Hill of his charge, WBO cruiserweight champion Lawrence Okolie. “That’s what I want right now.”
Hill was being asked about Okolie’s previously-held grand plans of unifying the world titles at 200lbs before moving up to heavyweight to fight for titles at the heavier weight.
The Kronk coach, however, does think 30-year-old Okolie has the frame to carry his weight and power up.
“He has the frame and the build for a heavyweight, it just takes time,” Hill continued. “Everybody has to move divisions at the right time.”
But first things first and Okolie fights in Manchester this weekend (Saturday, March 25) against New Zealand’s 20-0 David Light on Sky Sports in the UK and on Probox TV for international fight fans.
It’s a new start for Okolie, his first fight without promoter Eddie Hearn and first outing since he parted company with trainer Shane McGuigan.
Okolie was an Olympic quarter-finalist at the Rio Games of 2016 and he has stopped 14 of his 18 professional victims. The former McDonald’s employee has at times failed to impress, while at other times he’s looked like one of the most vicious cruiserweights in the division.
But Okolie has been accused of being raw, and that’s what Hill has seen.
Of course, Okolie is not Hill’s only high-profile UK fighter. He works with Olympic gold medallist Ben Whittaker and heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.
Of Fury’s on-off contract negotiations with Oleksandr Usyk, Hill simply said: “I don’t care who he wants to fight, if he wants to fight Usyk or Mickey Mouse over there at Universal Studios in Orlando, then he’ll fight whoever he wants to fight. I’ll just help him train for that fight and do my job. If he wants to fight the best or fight certain people… if they’re not possible, what can you do about it?”