Joshua, Adesanya add Nigerian flavour to Okolie’s world title defence

Israel Adesanya (left) and Anthony Joshua (right) flanking Lawrence Okolie before the WBO World Cruiserweight Boxing title fight at the 02 Arena, London…on Sunday

Nigeria was conspicuously present at the 02 Arena on Sunday night when Lawrence Okolie defended his WBO cruiserweight world title after winning a hugging match with Polish limpet, Michal Cieslak.

According to thesun.co.uk, Okolie’s A-lister friends and compatriots, Anthony Joshua and Israel Adesanya, walked the Olympian to the ring, with fans hoping for a Hollywood showing from the 29-year-old Hackney ace.

The duo, world champions in their own right, waved the Nigerian flag as Okolie went to work. But after Cieslak was pinged by the first serious punch of the O2 bout, slashing a wound into his left cheek, he spent the next 11 rounds grabbing and wrestling to a unanimous decision loss.

The judges called it 117-110, 116-111 and 115-112, with Cieslak also floored in the fifth. Okolie said: “I tried to push the pace and put my shots together but he made it difficult.

“I was trying to find my shots but he was holding and smothering, I dropped him in the fifth but he was tough and he had a good crowd cheering him on.”

The former McDonald’s cashier got straight to work chipping away at Cieslak with jabs to his body and a huge right hand stunned him early. That first serious shot of the fight was almost the only one and left a bleeding purple bruise on the Pole’s left cheekbone.

The limited mandatory challenger looked in deep trouble by the time the bell ended the opener while Okolie enjoyed sucking up 60 seconds of praise and information from trainer Shane McGuigan.

The raucous Polish crowd drowned out Okolie’s home support but he was making all the right noises in the ring.