Lawrence Okolie: I embraced boxing because of bullying
The sweat pours from Lawrence Okolie’s face as he finishes his training session at the University of East London gym that helped turn his life around.
The Hackney-born WBO cruiserweight champion is unsparingly frank when reflecting on the insecurities that first led him here, from the incessant bullying that prompted thoughts of self-harm to the shame he felt working in McDonald’s as his dream wasted away.
“I felt like I’d been left behind,” Okolie says, having recovered his breath after sprints on the exercise bike. “I was working as a cashier at the one in Victoria Station and I’d see people I knew from school going off to university, building towards an amazing life, and I was just stuck there. I had all these big aspirations for myself, about the life I wanted to live, and it felt like none of them would happen. I felt alone, if that makes sense.”
Okolie went from a relative novice to a Rio Olympian after watching Anthony Joshua win gold at London 2012 during a break in his shift. Unbeaten and largely untested in 19 fights as a professional, he will defend his WBO cruiserweight title for the fourth time against Chris Billam-Smith at Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium next Saturday. It is a fight laced with intrigue, with the pair having shared a coach in Shane McGuigan and sparred in hundreds of rounds.
“It’s probably the hardest fight [of my career],” he says. “Chris has good fundamentals, he’s fit, strong, a good puncher. I expect it’ll be tough but I know what I have to do, which is box my fight. I never get caught up in ego. I’m very cautious and, if I think he’s rallying, I’ll calm it down, take the sting out. I’m like Chelsea under [José] Mourinho; once I’m winning, I’ll park the bus.”
Okolie was inactive while in a legal dispute with Eddie Hearn, his former promoter, last year. “He’s extremely bitter,” Okolie, who was released from his contract and joined rival promoter Boxxer, says. “I’m thankful for the start of my career, but I’ve taken ownership of it now. It’s tough when you have someone as powerful as Eddie Hearn pulling strings, trying to make things hard for you.”
He was clinically obese as a teenager, weighing upwards of 19st, and confesses there were times when he came home from school and considered drastic measures. “I went through stages where I thought about doing stuff like, for example, ‘What if I just cut my stomach, would it be like liposuction?’ ” the 30-year-old says. “Random boys used to approach me and call me fat, hit me, all that kind of stuff, and I’d just have to take it.”
When Okolie did eventually stand up for himself and retaliate, he became involved in fights more frequently and drew attention from local gangs in Hackney. “We have several people from our friendship group that went down that road, who we won’t see for the next ten years,” he says. “You see certain stuff, people get very badly hurt; [you] see people you know being killed or killing people. You numb yourself to it because where we come from that’s standard, but you see the patterns. My love for my mum [stopped me] is what I’d say.”
Okolie lights up when speaking about his family in a way that rarely happens in boxing. “Seeing my mum’s pride or my sister smiling when I did a talk at her school, those spin-offs of what I’ve achieved in boxing have given me more satisfaction than winning the world title,” he says.
Okolie insists his desire is undiminished, and the looming, lucrative leap to heavyweight will inevitably sustain it a while longer. “If I stop Chris within five rounds, I’ll move up,” he says, and although a bout against London rival Richard Riakporhe may materialise first, most expect Okolie will only come unstuck against an opponent he cannot physically dominate. Rather, his self-possession seems a product of having long proven wrong the fears of becoming one of life’s also-rans. “I don’t need people to call me champ to get validation,” he says. “My family and friends know where I’ve come from and what I’ve accomplished and they’re happy. Once I’m finished with boxing, nothing else will matter.”
