Poland's Krzysztof Glowacki says there are weaknesses in Lawrence Okolie’s game and has promised to reclaim the currently vacant WBO cruiserweight championship by defeating the British contender at The SSE Arena, Wembley this Saturday, live on Sky Sports in the UK and on DAZN in the U.S. and elsewhere. Glowacki (31-2, 19 KOs) climbed off the canvas to score an eleventh-round knockout over Germany’s Marco Huck to claim the WBO crown in 2015 before outpointing America’s Steve Cunningham in his first defense. Trained by Fiodor Łapin, Glowacki was originally scheduled to face Okolie on December 12th, however, the week prior to the fight, Glowacki tested positive for te coronavirus.
The 34 year-old Glowacki lost his title to Oleksandr Usyk but regained the WBO interim belt in 2018. In 2019, he suffered a controversial stoppage loss to Mairis Briedis in Briedis' hometown, but has since been given a clean bill of health and is chomping at the bit for his ring return following a 21-month hiatus. “I’m very happy I can finally fight after such a long layoff,” said Glowacki. “I was absolutely devastated when I found out I was Covid positive, but every cloud has a silver lining. Now I feel better than in December. When I came back to training after Covid, I had some stamina issues, but everything is OK now. I feel pumped up and ready. I’m hugely motivated for this fight. I’m going to have a great opponent in front of me who has big ambitions of his own. I heard Okolie had some plans to unify, but he has to beat me and it’s not going to happen. I will retrieve my belt and I will bring it back to Poland. I will become WBO World Champion for the third time in my career, there is no other option."
Glowacki continued, “Okolie is unbeaten, he’s big and he’s strong. He has long arms and a huge reach, but I’ve noticed some weaknesses that you will see on the night. I’m ready for this fight and I’m ready to beat him. You will see on Saturday how I will beat him up. I’ve had a lot of sparring partners who were tall and uncomfortable. The support I receive from the Polish people will always motivate me. It’s a shame that they cannot support me in person because a lot of people would have turned out to support me in London, but instead they will be cheering me on in front of their televisions. I’ll bring the belt home for them.”
Okolie vs. Glowacki tops a huge night of action in London as Welsh junior lightweight Joe Cordina (11-0, 7 KOs) meets Belgium’s Faroukh Kourbanov (17-2, 3 KOs) over ten rounds... Liverpool junior middleweight Anthony Fowler (13-1, 10 KOs) returns against Spain’s Jorge Fortea (21-2-1, 7 KOs)... cruiserweight Chris Billam-Smith (11-1, 10 KOs) looks to keep his KO streak going against Vasil Ducar (9-3-1, 8 KOs)... Ramla Ali (1-0) faces Bec Connolly (3-8) in her second pro fight... featherweight Ellie Scotney (1-0) meets Mailys Gangloff (4-1, 1 KO) over six rounds and middleweight Bradley Rea (9-0, 3 KOs) takes on Lee Cutler (7-0, 4 KOs).
