Chisora: Okolie should win cruiserweight belt, move up to fight Whyte
Could Okolie head to heavyweight if he wins a cruiserweight belt on March 20?
Derek Chisora has stirred a few pots in his boxing career, and now he’s throwing out a suggestion for cruiserweight Lawrence Okolie, who will fight for his first world title on Saturday, Mar. 20 on DAZN, facing Krzsyzstof Glowacki for the vacant WBO belt.
“Okolie will smoke that guy then have two choices: Stay at cruiserweight or come up to heavyweight. If I was him, win that one, then go to heavyweight and challenge Dillian Whyte.”
There would be a lot of moving parts here, obviously. Okolie (15-0, 12 KO) is taking a good step up against Glowacki (31-2, 19 KO), a veteran and former titlist, and even if successful, moving up to heavyweight and immediately going after Whyte (27-2, 18 KO) might be a bit much to ask.
And Whyte, obviously, has his Mar. 27 rematch with Alexander Povetkin, seeking revenge for last August’s upset knockout loss. If Whyte wins that one, he’ll be targeting big heavyweight names. If he doesn’t, then yeah, something like an Okolie fight might make a lot of sense, actually.
It’s an ambitious suggestion, and obviously it has nothing to do with Chisora himself, but it’s worth a thought. On paper, the 6’5” Okolie has the height and length to fight at heavyweight, but there haven’t really been a ton of cruisers who have fought very successfully at heavyweight, and it’s definitely a process for most to acclimate, not just putting on effective weight of their own but now fighting naturally bigger guys.
As for Chisora, odds seem good that he’ll finally get a long-desired fight with Joseph Parker, who just beat Junior Fa in New Zealand this past weekend.
Okolie-Glowacki and Povetkin-Whyte 2 will both stream live on DAZN.