Britain’s most newly crowned world champion has called out Oleksandr Usyk for what would be a huge world title clash.
Usyk is the first undisputed heavyweight champion of the four-belt era and the first of any sort since 1999 following his victory over Tyson Fury.
There is a contracted rematch with Fury that is expected to take place sometime around October but already plenty of other fighters are wanting their shot at the Ukrainian.
He is undefeated as a professional having also cleared up and become undisputed cruiserweight champion six years ago, which was six years after he also won a gold medal at the Olympics for a rare hat-trick of honours, though he could well be stripped of one of his belts before he fights again.
The latest Brit to pick up a world title is Lawrence Okolie, who lost his cruiserweight world title to Chris Billam-Smith last year and has always said he intended to move up to the banner division.
However, he recently stalled that move and instead targeted becoming a two-division champion by competing in the bridgerweight division against Poland’s Lukasz Rozanski.
Ahead of that fight, Okolie moved away from his trainer Sugar Hill Steward and linked up with Joe Gallagher and the new team is now looking ahead to their next challenge.
Speaking to IFL TV, Okolie spoke about being at the upcoming 5 v 5 event this weekend featuring Daniel Dubois versus Flip Hrgovic and Deontay Widler versus Zhilei Zhang.
“I’m going to go there as a fan but also as a scouting mission, there are a lot of top heavyweights there. There are some fights that could be made in the division at the moment.”
After mentioning a Wilder fight he was asked if that would need a belt on the line.
“Not particularly but it’s always better if there is a belt on the line. He was WBC world heavyweight champion who will want to box for a WBC belt.
“I think why not, it’s also about the weight. Wilder weighs in at bridgwerweight, same as Usyk. If Usyk decides he wants to be a three-weight world champion, there’s opportunity for that.”
He then confirmed his desire to fight Usyk.
“I feel like everyone else in Britain has had their shot. I want to to go and test it. He’s sensational, very talented, but I have attributes that he hasn’t had to box against for a long time, like speed. I’d love that, if he feels like being three-weight world champion let’s do it.”
Whether or not Usyk will respond to the call, only time will tell.
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