Boxing’s marquee division has a new major player.
Queensberry Promotions confirmed Wednesday that former two-weight world champion Lawrence Okolie is set to return to the ring December 7 to make his heavyweight debut at the OVO Arena in Wembley, London, U.K.
Britain’s Okolie (20-1, 15 KOs) left Ben Shalom’s BOXXER to sign with Frank Warren’s Queensberry in mid-October and now moves up to heavyweight to face Germany’s Hussein Muhamed (18-1, 14 KOs). Muhamed has one blemish on his record, a third-round knockout defeat to Zhan Kossobutskiy in 2022.
The 31-year-old Okolie previously held the WBO cruiserweight title, which he lost in 2023 in his fourth defense to Chris Billam-Smith, who faces Gilberto Ramirez in a unification bout in November. Okolie has fought once since then, a first-round technical knockout win over Lukasz Rozanski in Poland in May to win the WBC bridgerweight belt.
Sitting atop the December 7 bill, WBO No. 2 Denzel Bentley (20-3-1, 17 KOs) takes on the WBO No. 4 Brad Pauls (19-1-1, 11 KOs) in a middleweight attraction for the British and WBO International strap. Bentley previously impressed in a competitive 2022 decision loss to middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhanuly. Pauls upset major ticket seller Nathan Heaney with a final-round stoppage in July.
British heavyweights Solomon Dacres (9-0, 3 KOs) and David Adeleye (12-1, 11 KOs) also collide for the English championship, and Sam Noakes (15-0, 14 KOs) — the lightweight up-and-comer who signed a long-term extension with Queensberry on Tuesday — battles Ryan Walsh (29-4-2, 13 KOs) in a domestic attraction for the British, Commonwealth, and WBO international titles.
Also on the card, Aloys Junior (8-1, 7 KOs) clashes with Lewis Oakford (6-1, 0 KOs) in a cruiserweight bout, Sean Noakes (8-0, 4 KOs) and Mathew Rennie (13-0-1, 1 KO) vie for the vacant English welterweight crown, and Dublin super lightweight prospect Pierce O’Leary (15-0, 8 KOs) returns to action against an opponent to be determined.
Read the full article here
