A Hackney boxer is squaring up to be the borough’s latest star in the ring as he prepares for the nationwide Amateur Boxing Association Championships next month, with his eyes set on making Team GB.
Lawrence Okolie, 21, from Stoke Newington, has been enjoying a dominant few seasons with a record of 11 wins out of 12 matches and a British University and College Sports Championship victory last month.
This came after a year of solid training and no formal matches for the Repton BC prize-fighter, as no other boxing club in London could nominate a fair competitor due to his impressive record.
Mr Okolie said, “The other clubs, they just kept coming back to me saying that no one is up for a fight. It was too hard to find someone who could match my record.”
Getting into Team GB?
In terms of the upcoming championship, he is feeling confident of success: “I definitely believe I’m going to go and win it. All the other competitors just seem the same. I wouldn’t have entered if I didn’t believe that I could go on and win.
“There’s then a chance then that I could get a trial for the Great Britain team. And if I can go on and beat one of them then my name will be up there. I definitely think I can do it.”
Mr Okolie, a sports-scholarship student at the University of East London, described how his passion for boxing came about through his desire to lose weight as a teenager.
Lawrence Okolie Training Session from Gus Grandfield on Vimeo.
He said: “I started boxing aged 17 simply as a way to lose weight. No one in my family ever boxed and I pushed myself into it just to keep fit.
“At that age I weighed 118 kilos [18.5 Stone] but now I’m down to around 81 to 82 kilos (12.5 Stone).
“I just kept training, started sparring, and my coaches just encouraged me to keep going. Even my mum wasn’t too into it when I started, but then after I started winning matches she did.”
Repton Boxing Club, with its unrivaled reputation as a factory for producing some East London’s most famous sporting legends, like Maurice Hope and Micky Carter, is a source of great inspiration to Mr Okolie. He said: “Repton is a proper old-school gym, with all of the pictures on the wall of fame watching you as you train. There is so much history in that place.”
And the young boxer is making the most of his chances in the ring, as he enjoys the benefits of a university sports scholarship tailored to his busy training regime:
“I train five times a week, either boxing at the club or doing strength and conditioning at the university, plus I go on runs myself.
“The uni helps out with allowing me to go up for tournaments and they schedule my timetable around my training because of my scholarship. It is things like that which help to keep me motivated and dedicated.”
“It’s all about wanting to do it and seeing the end goal – and then going out and getting it.”
