Lawrence Okoli (18-0, 14 KOs) to face mandatory defense against David Light (20-0, 12 KOs), but for now he is at war with current promoter Eddie Hearn.
Hearn parted ways with Sky Sports and began working with the DAZN platform. He was replaced by the BOXXER group, which offered Okoli double bets. The problem is that, according to Hearn, the WBO cruiserweight champion has one more fight under his contract. The boxer himself has a different opinion.
Almost exactly two years ago, Okoli was scheduled to fight Krzysztof Głowacki for the vacant WBO belt. The Pole, however, caught the covid, was unable to fight, and another Pole, Nikodem Yezhevsky, entered the ring instead, whom the Briton confidently stopped in the middle of the second round.
“Okoli was supposed to face Glowacki on the Joshua-Pulev undercard. As a result, it was a temporary intermediate fight with Yezhevsky, which we gave him under the contract. And it was agreed before the fight that this fight would not be included in the contract, ”says Hearn.
If the parties fail to reach an agreement, and nothing indicates this, the tender for the Okoli-Light fight will take place on December 22 at the headquarters of the World Boxing Organization in Puerto Rico. The minimum amount to participate in the tender will be 300,000 US dollars. The money will be divided 75 to 25 in favor of the reigning champion.
Okoli confirmed that Hearn was willing to release him from his contract, but for £500,000.