Okolie Fights Again On April 15

Lawrence Okolie will fight for the second time as a pro at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow on April 15.

The Team GB Rio Olympian joined the paid ranks on Saturday night with a brutal KO win over Geoffrey Cave inside 20 seconds at the Manchester Arena on the undercard of Jorge Linares’ stunning display in his rematch with Anthony Crolla.

The 24 year old impressed with his showreel stoppage but the Hackney talent believes that the whole occasion of his debut has stood him in good stead for his future endeavours, from the big press conference before the fight to his wait to get in the ring as a live float on the night.

“The whole experience was invaluable,” said Okolie. “In the pros, sometimes you don’t have a scheduled time so you have to stay warm and get ready to be switched on so I have ticked that box already.

“I managed to keep my focus and not get overawed by the situation, that’s important to me. It’s not just go in and fight, there’s so much more to boxing in the build-up and on the night, and I need to learn about all of it.

“I just relaxed and caught him with a right hand, I wasn’t sure if he was going down or not so I threw another right hand and that ended it.

“It’s about fighting as often as possible so it’s great to be going up to Scotland on another big bill in front of the great fans up there.”

Okolie’s second pro fight is part of a huge night of action in Glasgow as WBA World Super-Lightweight champion Ricky Burns looks to unify against IBF king Julius Indongo.

Scotty Cardle looks to land the British Lightweight title outright when he faces Robbie Barrett, Cardle’s gym-mate Callum Johnson defends his Commonwealth Light-Heavyweight title against Schiller Hyppolite and Charlie Edwards and Iain Butcher clash for the vacant British Super-Flyweight title.

Charlie Flynn fights for his first pro title as he faces Ryan Collins for the Celtic Lightweight title, Joe Ham takes on Scott McCormack for the Scottish Super-Bantamweight title and Team GB Olympian Josh Kelly makes his pro debut.