Lawrence Okolie retained his WBO cruiserweight title against Michal Cieslak on Saturday night, outpointing the Pole in a scrappy affair.
Okolie was the hometown fighter in London’s O2 Arena, but it was his challenger who had the greater support throughout the main-event contest, which marked the Briton’s second defence of the belt. Okolie (18-0, 14 knockouts) remained unbeaten with the victory, which was hard fought and failed to see the 29-year-old operate at his highest level. The former Team GB Olympian struggled to time his right hand throughout the fight, while Cieslak (21-2, 15 KOs) frequently held the champion and looked to make it a messy contest. Ultimately, however, Okolie established a lead and made it to the final bell without that advantage having come under any real threat.
As such, it was little surprise when the judges’ scorecards were all revealed to favour Okolie – 117-110, 116-111, 115-112 – though the third flattered Cieslak.
On the undercard, Galal Yafai enjoyed a successful professional debut after winning gold for Britain at last summer’s Olympics in Tokyo. Also in action was Cambpell Hatton, son of British boxing icon Ricky Hatton. who secured a stoppage win to match Yafai’s. Re-live all the action from Okolie vs Cieslak and the evening’s undercard fights, below.
