Lawrence Okolie (The Sauce) boxer

Lawrence Okolie (born 16 December 1992) is a British professional boxer who has held the WBO cruiserweight title since 2021. At regional level, he held the Commonwealth cruiserweight title from 2018 to 2019, and the British and European cruiserweight titles separately in 2019. Okolie is known for his long reach, accurate jab and punching power. As of October 2020, he is ranked as the world's seventh best active cruiserweight by The Ring magazine and fourth by BoxRec.Okolie was born in Hackney, London to Nigerian parents. He grew up in Stoke Newington and attended Stoke Newington School. He was selected for Team GB in 2016 Rio Olympics. Fighting as a heavyweight, he beat Igor Pawel Jakubowski from Poland on points in the Preliminary Round of the Rio Olympics.citation needed He then lost to eventual bronze medalist Erislandy Savon of Cuba.On 18 January 2017, Okolie announced his decision to turn professional, signing with Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Sport to compete in the cruiserweight division.His first professional fight took place at the Manchester Arena in Manchester on 25 March 2017. It was on the undercard for the Jorge Linares vs. Anthony Crolla lightweight world championship fight. His opponent was 33 year old Geoffrey Cave, who had a record of no wins and two losses. The fight lasted 20 seconds and ended after Okolie landed two right hooks to the head of Cave. The referee stopped the fight immediately. His next bout took place in Glasgow, Scotland at The SSE Hydro on 15 April as part of the undercard for the world Ricky Burns vs. Julius Indongo super lightweight unification fight. He fought 35 year old journeyman Lukasz Rusiewicz. Okolie knocked Rusiewicz down twice in round one en route to a first-round stoppage. The time of stoppage was 2 minutes and 36 seconds.Okolie was scheduled to fight on the undercard of the mega heavyweight fight Anthony Joshua vs. Wladimir Klitschko on 29 April at the Wembley Stadium in London. On 25 April, it was announced that he would fight Russell Henshaw (7–4, 2 KOs), who he was supposed to fight on his debut. On the night, Okolie tweeted that he would no longer be fighting on the undercard. The reason for this was due to Wembley council having a curfew of 11:00pm and the main event was due to start at 10:00pm. The other fights on the undercard went longer than expected.Okolie fought on the Kell Brook vs. Errol Spence Jr. IBF world title undercard at Bramall Lane in Sheffield on 27 May, defeating Rudolf Helesic in the first round. Helesic was knocked down twice prior to the stoppage. On 1 July, Okolie recorded his fourth straight first-round stoppage win against Russell Henshaw. The fight was stopped after 2 minutes and 10 seconds into the round.