Okolie and Adeleye KO opponents in Round 1

Nigeria-born Lawrence Okolie marked his debut at heavyweight by explosively stopping Germany’s Hussein Muhamed inside a round at Wembley Arena.

The 31-year-old, after one contest at bridgerweight, had weighed in on Friday at a surprisingly heavy career-record 260.8lbs – considerably beyond the cruiserweight limit at which he reigned as WBO champion until his only defeat, by Chris Billam-Smith in 2023.

The fight with Muhamed, 33 and a career heavyweight, also represented the first of his promotional agreement with Queensberry Promotions, so influential in his new weight division.

Muhamed’s aggression and clumsiness posed as much a threat to himself as to Okolie during the opening exchanges. It therefore surprised little when Okolie landed the counter right hand that dropped him sufficiently heavily that Muhamed was impressed in eventually returning to his feet, where, after appearing unsteady, he was rightly rescued by the referee Lee Every after two minutes and 14 seconds.

In another bout, Nigeria-born David Adeleye landed a KO of the year contender by destroying Solly Dacres with a sensational left hook after just 80 seconds.

Two months on from a punishing stoppage loss to Fabio Wardley in Saudi Arabia, Adeleye was back in his West London home, obliterating the giant Brummie with the only serious shot of the opener.

From ringside it looked like a glancing blow that should not have brutalised 31-year-old Dacres so badly.

But replays at the right angle showed 28-year-old Adeleye’s boulder-like first smashing into the top of Dacres’ skull.

After bouncing back from his first loss in stunning fashion, Big D said: “I still have a lot to do.

“I'm going back to the gym, I’ve got a big future ahead of me. I know where I can go, and I have to do the steps to get there

“I am a strong-minded individual, I went to the gym, and Adam had me grafting, from the basics.

“Kudos to Solomon, I hope he has a good support group behind him.”

After a couple of testing jabs from both men probing the range, Adeleye missed with a wild left hook.

But then he leapt in with a lead left hook reminiscent of a prime Mike Tyson and the defending English champion was floored.

The referee didn’t even begin a count, waving off the briefest of contests when Dacres was face-planted into the Wembley arena canvas.

Thankfully Dacres did recover and left the ring on his feet, with Adeleye strapping the new belt over his giant tattooed shoulder.

The ruthless performance was Adeleye’s first with new trainer Adam Booth, the mastermind behind David Haye’s world title reigns at cruiserweight and heavyweight.

And the Surrey coach was full of praise for Adeleye’s power and potential.

He said: “He is an athlete, a phenomenal athlete that had really bad habits.

“It all starts from the floor, we have done so much work with legs

“I've worked with some of the biggest punchers and his jab and lead left is as hard as I've taken on the pads.”