Lawrence Okolie has been speaking about the differences he has experienced between his new trainer Joe Gallagher and his previous trainer Shane McGuigan.
Okolie has also briefly worked with Sugar Hill, the man who guided Tyson Fury to some of his biggest wins, but announced in April that he was moving on and linking up with Gallagher, who himself has worked with plenty of champions from Liam Smith to Anthony Crolla.
Okolie has opened up on his past coaches and discussed how they both have different approaches to boxing.
“I think they are both good. Shane McGuigan was more of a coach for pads, and you get better on the pads with Shane, but they are both good tacticians so it’s hard to say. Joe is more about work whether it’s punch bags, pads and other little tools in the gym that I hate so they’re both good and it’s hard to compare.”
Okolie also spoke about how the link-up with Gallagher came about ahead of his return to the ring next month.
“There were a couple of reasons (I chose Joe Gallagher as trainer). The first reason is that we trained together when I sparred Joseph Parker before his fight with Deontay Wilder. I liked how he was in the corner, the sort of stuff we worked on and after the spar I thought he gets my style so let’s work with that.
“When I realised I was boxing in Poland against a Polish world champion with such a high knockout ratio, I wanted a coach who is going to be ready to be in the trenches with me. Somebody who wants to win like I do and that’s where it has all come together.
“It is a bit of a culture shock. I always train hard but it’s different with this one, especially when I had one year without having a fight so it’s like hitting the ground running. There’s definitely benefits of it but it’s hard (moving to Manchester).”
Okolie held the WBO cruiserweight championship from March 2021 until his clash with Billam-Smith in May 2023, where he lost his title via a majority decision at the Vitality Stadium in Bournemouth.
Many fans expressed their dissatisfaction with the fight as it was another rather scrappy affair that saw Okolie have points deducted for holding in both the fifth and seventh rounds.
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