Lawrence Okolie vs Kevin Lerena and Daniel Lapin vs Lewis Edmondson championships fights have just been announced on the undercard of the historic Oleksandr Usyk vs Daniel Dubois ‘Undisputed’ bill at Wembley Stadium on July 19.
In the first of two featured fights, two-weight world champion and newest heavyweight contender Lawrence Okolie, the WBC Silver champion, will defend his green and gold belt against the former IBO world cruiserweight champion Kevin Lerena, live on DAZN.
At light heavyweight, British and Commonwealth champ Lewis Edmondson will go up against undefeated Ukrainian Daniel Lapin for the IBF Intercontinental and WBA Continental straps.
Lawrence Okolie vs Kevin Lerena
Lawrence Okolie, 21-1 (14 KOs), won the WBO cruiserweight world title in 2021 with a knockout victory over Krzysztof Glowacki and went on to make three successful defences.
He then won the WBC bridgerweight world title with a first round KO of Lukasz Rozanski in Poland before making the move up to heavyweight and winning the WBC Silver title with another first round triumph over Hussein Muhamed in December 2024.
At cruiserweight, Okolie was British, Commonwealth and European champion after featuring at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
Kevin Lerena, 31-3 (15 KOs), became IBO world cruiserweight champion in 2017 with victory over Youri Kayembre Kalenga and went on to make six successful defences before moving up to heavyweight and claiming the IBO Intercontinental title by defeating veteran Mariusz Wach.
33-years-old from South Africa, Lerena came very close to inflicting a major upset when he travelled to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in December 2022 to take on current IBF world champion Daniel Dubois on the undercard of Tyson Fury’s world title defence against Derek Chisora.
After losing a decision defeat to Justis Huni, “The KO Kid” Lerena’s most recent action came against Serhiy Radchenko in May, where he stopped the Ukrainian in the third round.
Daniel Lapin vs Lewis Edmondson
Southampton star Lewis Edmondson, 11-0 (3 KOs), became British and Commonwealth champion in just his 10th fight when he took a step up in class against former European champ Dan Azeez in London and inflicted an unexpected defeat over 12 rounds in “The Saint’s” first professional title fight.
Most recently, the 29-year-old defended his Commonwealth belt against the previously unbeaten Oluwatosin Kejawa and secured victory via a unanimous decision in Bournemouth.
Kyiv’s Daniel Lapin, 11-0 (4 KOs), is an established member of Team Usyk and the southpaw won his maiden title, the IBO Continental, with a defeat of Aro Schwartz in 2023.
The 27-year-old Polish-born puncher added the WBA Continental title the following year with a first round stoppage of Octavio Pudivitr in Riyadh, before securing the IBF Intercontinental title in December with a unanimous points victory over Dylan Colin.
Some tickets remain for the Usyk vs Dubois super-fight at Wembley Stadium on 19 July and are available from ticketmaster.co.uk and rtticket.com
Read the full article here