Okolie’s Injury Forces Withdrawal, Riakporhe Seeks Replacement

Lawrence Okolie has pulled out of his heavyweight fight against Richard Riakporhe with an injury for the April 5th card on DAZN at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, England. The promoters for the cruiserweight Riakporhe (17-1, 13 KOs) are now left scrambling to fight a replacement on less than a month’s notice.

Replacement Hunt

The Ring reports that the 32-year-old Okole was injured training for the bout with Riakporhe. There are obviously a lot of heavyweights that can step in to fill the spot, but many of them would beat Riakporhe, which is not ideal for his promoters.

If it’s not too late, the promoters for the event should use Riakporhe as the opponent for Joe Joyce in the main event. They’ve already got Filip Hrgovic as the opponent for Joyce, but that’s a terrible match-up for ‘The Juggernaut.’ Hrgovic has too much talent.

Riakporhe is more up Joyce’s ally, and would give him a better chance of winning. If the idea is to rebuild Joyce, using Hrgovic is the wrong direction. I wouldn’t do it if I were his promoter.

Okolie’s Limits

Okolie’s career looks like it’s going nowhere. He’s not cut out for the heavyweight division. When he was melting down to cruiserweight to fight much smaller guys, he was in the ideal situation to succeed because of his size advantage in a historically weak division. But now that Okolie is a heavyweight, his career situation looks beyond bleak.

Even with careful matchmaking being done for him by his promoter, he’s not beating anyone good, and he’ll likely fall apart if he’s put in with a decent heavyweight. 32 isn’t old, but Okolie doesn’t have enough time to develop into a fighter capable of competing with the lions in the division. His beating at cruiserweight by Chris Billiam-Smith in 2023 showed his limitations as a fighter.

Okolie should forget about fighting at heavyweight and return to cruiserweight. You can’t plug Okolie in with anyone worth their salt at heavyweight and expect him to emerge victorious. He’s too clumsy and uncoordinated.