Eddie Hearn has weighed in on former charge Lawrence Okolie’s world title defeat to Chris Billam-Smith in Bournemouth last night.
Billam-Smith edged out former stablemate Okolie at a packed out Vitality Stadium, with three knockdowns and two point deductions going towards ‘The Gentleman’ scoring a majority decision victory to become WBO cruiserweight champion of the world.
When asked for his thoughts on the fight by Boxing Social, Hearn did not rub too much salt into Okolie’s wounds, however did concede that ‘The Sauce’ had been poorly advised.
“You can’t start sticking the knife in now, just because he’s lost. But he’s been poorly advised, it is what it is.”
“He believed he could beat Billam-Smith on away soil. He wanted the big unification fights, he’s had two fights that haven’t been one of them, and he’s got beat.”
“You can get beat any time, but he’s definitely been poorly advised. But that’s irrelevant when you’re talking about the fights, I wish him all the best.”
After a very public contractual dispute that lasted the best part of a year, Hearn and Okolie parted ways towards the back end of 2022 to sign with Sky Sports and Boxxer.
His first outing for Ben Shalom’s outfit came in March of this year, an underwhelming defence of his world title against mediocre mandatory challenger David Light at the Manchester Arena.
Due to the fight last night being a voluntary defence, a rematch clause is in place for Okolie, meaning he will be able to jump straight back in with Billam-Smith to try and win his world title back.