Lawrence Okolie said he would look to a rematch and learn lessons after losing his WBO cruiserweight title to Chris Billam-Smith on a night charged by emotion in Bournemouth.
Okolie lost for the first time as a professional, and against his old McGuigan’s Gym campmate, in a torrid, physical, untidy scrap in Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium.
Okolie was ruled to have been knocked down three times – a fourth round left hook by Billam-Smith was the pick of shots landed in the fight – and Okolie had two points deducted and numerous warnings from referee Marcus McDonnell for a range of infractions.
The deposed champion was sporting in defeat and said he felt good that he had taken part in a good fight. Despite the loss of his title, the former Rio Olympian faced up to the post-fight press conference with dignity and defiance.
“As long as I lose convincingly and I try my best I’m always alright with whatever happens,” Okolie said. “I enjoy boxing and I know that we are going to be able to come again.”
Okolie was full of praise for Billam-Smith and even happy for his rival. He promised to come again and win a world title once more, and he wants a return that his contract calls for.
“He did a lot of good stuff in there,” said Okolie. “I was maybe a little too tense when I was letting the shots go. After the fact, I can tell when I let the shots go it was working well. However, when I was forcing it, nothing was coming off. He was able to get short shots and keep grinding and that along with the first knockdown and good momentum played a massive factor.”
That first knockdown was a crunching left hook, by far the clearest of the three knockdowns.
“The first one definitely,” Okolie added, when asked how many he think should have been called. “I thought, ‘Oh, good shot.’ I remember it landing and I said, ‘Damn, he got me.’ By the time it got to four I was alright. The other two, I didn’t think they were knockdowns. I was like, ‘What’s going on?’”
Okolie felt referee Marcus McDonnell was over-officious. The former champ was warned for pushing, clinching, falling in, use of the head and just about everything else.
Will he change his style, so referees do not become so involved in his fights?
“Either that or refs are going to have to get educated on other people,” he said. “There’s positions that you get into that the other guy is locking your arm, but because of reputations, referees are just losing their minds, ‘Oh, you’re holding.’ It’s like ‘Come on, if you’ve got a hand free you’ve got to be able to work.’ But it’s not for me to educate refs, it’s for refs to go and do their homework. Other than that, I did realise that when I was punching, it was working so it is making me throw more punches.”
And despite the words, Okolie’s post-fight energy was wholly positive. He wished Billam-Smith well and said he would come back better.
“There are a few tweaks that can make a big difference,” Okolie continued. “I’m not really that fussed, I’m just ready to go again… At the end of the day this is boxing. The main thing is I know I’m down but I’m not out. Good performance on his part, he put everything on the line and got his reward for it. I’ll be pushing for a rematch.”
Trainer SugarHill Steward said the plan had been for Okolie to win by knockout and to get leverage by staying tall, but he felt his charge was too tight and he needed to relax more.
“When he’s fluent, he’s magical,” said Steward. “Keep moving, be free. He would jump in and then just stop, or he’d jump in and just freeze. The one time he hurt Chris he smothered his work.”
With Okolie losing points, Lawrence said he felt tighter, constricted by an urgency that made him force his work, but this was a story about two old gym sparring partners and their different journeys too and from this point.
Has Billam-Smith improved since their time together in Shane McGuigan’s gym?
“It’s the same guy,” said Okolie. “Me and him always had good, hard work. If I had landed the shot in the fourth that got him, I probably would have got the fight, but moments make fights. You get a knockdown, it boosts you for the next couple of rounds… Today’s his day, and I know what I’m going to go and work on…. It was good to see Chris fulfil his dreams. I’m happy for him as a man. I think he’s great with his wife, I think he’s great with his kid, and I like him as a person. I would like to have been able to knock him out! But he got the victory here and I don’t really feel any ill will towards him, I just want to get it back.”
