While speculation has linked Mairis Breidis and Lawrence Okolie to a cruiserweight unification against one another the Brit’s trainer likes another option.
Okolie made the second defence of his WBO belt against Michal Cieslak last month as Briedis, the IBF champion, took in the action ringside.
The other two champions in the division are Arsen Goulamirian (WBA) and Ilunga Makabu (WBC). And it’s a unification against the Congolese cruiser that McGuigan is keen on for Okolie.
“Makabu was sitting there waiting for the Canelo fight. The fact that Canelo has gone to [Dmitry] Bivol… I think that’s a great fight we can make right now,” said McGuigan who spoke to Boxing Social’s Ryan Elliott.
“Can he do a better job than Tony Bellew (who beat Makabu in 2016)? Probably not. Bellew knocked him out so fantastically. But if he beats him, if he gets the knockout, if he wins it’s a unification and that’s what we want.”
Canelo and Okolie’s promoter Eddie Hearn recently said that Makabu remains an option, along with Britain’s John Ryder, for the Mexican superstar’s third opponent of 2022 after Bivol and Gennadiy Golovkin.
Click here to watch Shane McGuigan’s interview with Boxing Social.