Okolie Snoozes Past Cieslak on a Show Redeemed by an Amazing KO

It was a rare Sunday of fisticuffing at the O2 Arena in London where the main go was a WBO world cruiserweight title fight between Lawrence Okolie and Poland’s Michael Cieslak. Okolie, a 2016 Olympian, born in England to Nigerian parents, was making the second defense of the belt he won with a smashing performance over another Pole, Krzysztof Glowacki.

This was Okolie’s seventh fight with trainer Shane McGuigan with whom he had made great gains. Today, however, he reverted to the pre-McGuigan Okolie, a one-dimensional fighter noted for delivering humdrum fights. Okolie vs. Cieslak was a messy fight marred by rabbit punches and excessive clinching.

There was one knockdown. It came in the fifth round when Okolie (18-0, 14 KOs) caught Cieslak with a right hand that dropped the Pole to one knee. But that was one of the few occasions when Cieslak wasn’t smothering Okolie’s punches.

Cieslak declined to 21-2. His previous defeat came at the hands of Ilunga Makabu in the Congo. Makabu may be in Lawrence Okolie’s immediate future, but if promoter Eddie Hearn had his druthers, Okolie would first fight IBF title-holder Mairis Briedis before moving up to heavyweight. Briedis was in attendance.

An Amazing KO

The co-feature between featherweights Jordan Gill (27-1-1, 8 KOs) and Karim Guerfi (30-6) was mindful in some respects of the famous 2005 barnburner between Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo.

Gill, who was knocked down in the seventh and then wrestled to the canvas, landing on his head, was getting all the worst of it as the seconds wound down in round nine. But then, with only two seconds left in the frame, he nailed Guerfi with a straight right hand and the Frenchman, who was making the first defense of his European title, was out cold before he hit the canvas. Gill, who wasn’t known as a big puncher, was fighting with an apparent busted eardrum and with swelling over his right eye and it was questionable if he would have been allowed out for the 10th if Guerfi had survived those final two seconds.

Other Bouts

Two members of England’s 2020/21 Olympic team, 29-year-old flyweight Galal Yafai and 31-year-old heavyweight Cheavon Clarke, made their pro debut on the undercard.

Galal Yafai, a gold medalist in Tokyo who also represented England in the 2016 Rio Games, scored a fifth-round stoppage over Mexico’s Carlos Bautista in a match slated for “10.” The aggressor throughout, Yafai put Bautista down with a blistering four-punch combination and his corner threw in the towel.

The younger brother of former WBA world super flyweight champion Kal Yafai and former European super bantamweight champion Gamal Yafai, Galal is being fast-tracked to a world title opportunity. Bautista declined to 10-5-1.

Cheavon Clarke, a late bloomer who moved to England from his native Jamaica at age 11, stopped Croatian no-hoper Toni Visic in the second. Heading in, Visic (20-30-2) was 0-8-1 in his last nine and had been stopped 11 times.

Six-foot-five heavyweight slugger Fabio Wardley (13-0, 12 KOs) TKOed Daniel Martz, dismissing the West Virginia slug in the second round. Martz has been stopped nine times in his last 11 outings. Another undefeated heavyweight, Demsey McKean, a six-foot-six Australian, improved to 20-0 (14) with an 8-round shutout over Argentina’s Ariel Bracamante (11-7). McKean threw the kitchen sink at Bracamante who hung on until the final bell.

Photo credit: Mark Robinson / Matchroom