WBO champion Okolie and opponent both assure of knockout victories on Saturday

Okolie, 30, returned to the ring after a year-long layoff in March to outscore New Zealand’s David Light 20-1 (12). The fight was a scrappy affair, but Okolie has vowed to improve on that performance against Billam-Smith

WBO champion Okolie and opponent both assure of knockout victories on Saturday

WBO cruiserweight champion Lawrence Okolie 19-0 (14) believe his former sparring partner Chris Billam-Smith 17-1 (12) has the perfect style to bring out the best in him ahead of their clash at Vitality Stadium in Bournemouth, England on Saturday night.

“The way Chris fights, he’s always all action. He comes to throw a lot of punches, put a lot of pressure on where he’s the home fighter, he’s going to have 15,000 people screaming for him, hoping that he can dethrone me,” Okolie said to Sky Sports.

“So I’m going to have to be devastating and he’s going to make it very easy for me.”

Okolie, 30, returned to the ring after a year-long layoff in March to outscore New Zealand’s David Light 20-1 (12). The fight was a scrappy affair, but Okolie has vowed to improve on that performance against Billam-Smith.

“I’ve got my own ambitions, my own stuff, unifications, moving up to heavyweight. I’ve got someone here who wants to take that away from me and fulfil his own dreams. But unfortunately none of his dreams are going to be built on my nightmares. I’m going to devastate him,” Okolie said.

Billam-Smith, 32, is equally confident about his chances, saying he expect Okolie to unravel when he starts landing clean shots on him.

“It’s been a really good camp,” Billam-Smith told talkSPORT.

“No particular [sparring] names just big heavyweights with long arms and lots of weight on me and stuff like that. Plenty of weight being put on me as Lawrence, obviously, likes to hold on the inside.

“So, working on him leaning on me and working on the gameplan and stuff like that.

“Lawrence is difficult to land on, but you’ve got to find a way to hit him and keep hitting him clean. Not many have really hit Lawrence clean and if they have hit him, it’s usually one shot.

“So, the game plan is to find a way to nail him and nail him continuously. Keep landing shots, that’s when I think he’ll unravel.”

Billiam-Smith has now won eight fights in a row since his lone loss to Richard Riakporhe to force himself into world title contention. As always, Billam-Smith will be looking to make it an early night on Saturday.

“I go into every fight looking for a knockout. That’s why I’m in exciting fights and always in entertaining fights because I’m always looking to get a knockout or stoppage if I can,” he said.