{"id":171863,"date":"2025-10-01T03:12:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T03:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/171863\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T03:12:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T03:12:10","slug":"lawrence-okolie-risks-mothers-wrath-with-surprise-anthony-joshua-fight-u-turn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/171863\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawrence Okolie risks mother’s wrath with surprise Anthony Joshua fight U-turn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lawrence Okolie sees the perfect opportunity for him to share the ring with Anthony Joshua.<\/p>\n

Okolie held the WBO cruiserweight and WBC bridgerweight world titles, before he turned his hand to the heavyweight division.<\/p>\n

\"Okolie<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Okolie has continued his success at heavyweight, as he record stands at 22-1Credit: Getty<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old recently put his name forward as a potential contender for rising star<\/a>, Moses Itauma<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since stepping up, he has certainly had his sights firmly set on the biggest names.<\/p>\n

Okolie had previously suggested in 2023 that he would never face Joshua, largely down to his mother’s wishes for the pair never to touch gloves.<\/p>\n

The pair have sparred several times in the past, including as recently as 2025, and ‘The Sauce’ was never previously open to the all-British bout.<\/p>\n

But he has since explained to talkSPORT, that since graduating to the heavyweight division, his stance has softened and a fight now makes more sense.<\/p>\n

“AJ is the biggest boxing star we’ve seen come out of England in the last\u2026 maybe ever,” he said.<\/p>\n

“So for me and him to get on in Africa would be absolutely monumental.<\/p>\n

“We must be two of the last boxing world champions out of Nigeria, myself and him.<\/p>\n

As both heavyweights share Nigerian descent, a fight between the pair on the African continent would be a historic showdown.<\/p>\n

Although, Okolie is keen to remain open to whatever comes his way in boxing’s glamour division.<\/p>\n

\"Okolie<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Okolie was formerly managed by Joshua and they remain friendly despite that relationship endingCredit: @lawrence_tko – Twitter<\/p>\n

He explained: “In terms of routes, for me, I don’t really have one that I’m like, this is the exact one I want.<\/p>\n

“I’m at the level now, I’ve been a world champion twice now and I’m top ranked at the WBC.<\/p>\n

“There\u2019s not a fight that they’re going to offer me or that’s going to present itself that I’ll turn down.<\/p>\n

“So I just look forward to the end of this year and a huge 2026.”<\/p>\n

Are we likely to see Anthony Joshua fighting Lawrence Okolie?<\/p>\n

Joshua is gearing up to return to the ring, after a 12-month hiatus following his loss to Daniel Dubois<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His promoter, Eddie Hearn<\/a>, revealed that Joshua will be seeking a comeback bout with a top-15 ranked heavyweight.<\/p>\n

\"Joshua<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Joshua will be hoping to return to winning ways upon his comebackCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

As it stands, Hearn has also floated the likes of<\/a> Martin Bakole, Efe Ajagba and Tony Yoka as frontrunners for his fighter’s return.<\/p>\n

While Okolie might not be a name that frequents conversations<\/a> about Joshua’s next match-up, that doesn’t rule him out.<\/p>\n

Especially as he is currently the top ranked heavyweight, according to the WBC.<\/p>\n

An announcement is likely imminent in the next few weeks, and it will only then become clear if Okolie is in the picture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lawrence Okolie sees the perfect opportunity for him to share the ring with Anthony Joshua. Okolie held the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[6565,2560,6102,6572,16174,16171,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-171863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-anthony-joshua","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-eddie-hearn","tag-lawrence-okolie","tag-moses-itauma","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}