Photo: Panek via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped. This adapted image is also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Lawrence Okolie is a two-weight world champion. The plant-based Hackney fighter knocked out Lukasz Rozanski in the first round in Poland on Friday, May 24 to win the WBC bridgerweight world title.
It was over in a flash. Okolie dropped the home favorite with a crashing right hand, put him down again with another overhand right on the ropes, then finished it with a devastating uppercut that left Rozanski on his hands and knees. Referee Daniel Van de Wiele waved it off, Sky Sports reports.
It was Okolie's first fight since he lost his WBO cruiserweight title to Chris Billam-Smith last May, and Rozanski's first defeat as a professional. Okolie moves to 20-1 and takes another step toward heavyweight.
This was the best moment in boxing for me, I'm super happy. New weight, putting the KO back in Okolie.
He had a word for trainer Joe Gallagher too. "I hated every single second, but today made it all worthwhile," he said of a tough camp.
Okolie has eaten plant-based since he turned professional in 2017. He describes himself as "mainly vegan", telling Sky that he doesn't eat "meat, fish, eggs, or cow's milk", and he says the diet helps him manage his weight and keeps his energy levels up, Plant Based News reported. He fills up on fruit, vegetables, rice and grains, which he calls "basically stuff that gives me energy to train but then it's not as hard to process in my body."
Making a new weight and then knocking a dangerous unbeaten champion out inside three minutes seems to back that up.
Okolie first knocked out Glowacki to become WBO cruiserweight world champion in 2021, and he retained that title in Manchester last March. He follows a long line of plant-powered fighters on this site, going back to David Haye.
No meat, no problem.