Okolie congratulates British world champion on recent victories

LAWRENCE OKOLIE has been impressed by one of his new promotional stablemates in recent months.

The former WBO cruiserweight and WBC bridgerweight champion makes his heavyweight debut tomorrow night in Birmingham against Hussein Muhamed, 18-1 (14 KO). This year, there have been several firsts for Okolie, 20-1 (15 KOs). Signing with Queensberry, joining Joe Gallagher's gym and moving up to heavyweight where he hopes to win a third world title.

Among the many heavyweight fights, notably in Riyadh, the current IBF champion Daniel Dubois caught Okolie's attention. The 31-year-old spoke to Boxing News yesterday about the man who is now one of his new rivals.

“If you look at his form, it's 'Big Baby' Miller, Hrgovic [and] Antoine Joshua. Those are three top-quality heavyweights that he's been there with, beat them and punched and stopped two of them. He is in excellent shape.

Moving forward, Okolie, already fifth in the WBC heavyweight rankings, could face Dubois if one or both have a world title up for grabs. The IBF titleholder will be next out on February 22 in Riyadh to defend his belt against Joseph Parker.

“It’s a big fight,” Okolie said.

“It’s a risky fight for Dan. We saw Parker with Zhang, we saw him with Wilder who are two huge punchers. And he was able to overturn them and get point decisions on both. This is a difficult question.

“If Dan gets a hold of him and overwhelms him with power punches, he might get a stoppage. But if he's not careful, the rounds could slip away and Parker could win a decision. However, Parker has gained a lot of size over the last few months so I don't know if that will slow him down and he will end up in the pocket too much. We have to wait and see.