Lawrence Okolie And Krzysztof Glowacki Compete For Vacant WBO Cruiserweight Title On Dec. 12

The Anthony Joshua-Kubrat Pulev undercard just got a lot more interesting with today’s news that Lawrence Okolie and Krzysztof Glowacki will battle it out for the vacant WBO cruiserweight title. The pair will face off inside The O2 in London on Saturday December 12.

Poland’s Glowacki (31-2, 19 KO) has twice held the WBO strap, capturing it first in 2015 after he knocked out Germany’s Marco Huck. He then lost the title after one defense to Oleksandr Usyk.

In 2018 the 34-year-old claimed the WBO interim cruiserweight after outpointing Russia’s Maxim Vlasov. He then controversially lost to Latvia’s Mairis Briedis when the pair fought in the WBSS semifinal. After the WBO ordered a rematch, Briedis instead chose to face Yuniel Dorticos in the WBSS final, leaving the WBO title vacant.

The UK’s Okolie (14-0, 11 KO) comes into this fight as the EBU European Cruiserweight Champion and racked up four knockout wins during a busy 2019.

“It has been a long and hard road to get here,” said Okolie.

“I’m very excited and blessed to have this opportunity; I’ll be grabbing it with both hands. I will become Britain’s next World Champion on December 12,” he commented.

“Glowacki is a great fighter, and he is someone that I looked up to when I first started boxing. I believe he won the World Title the same year I was pushing to try and get on the Olympic team when I’d had 15 amateur fights.

“He’s a former two-time World Champion and has only lost twice to two elite opponents. He’s going to be my biggest test on paper as a professional. He is a consummate professional and will do everything in his power to win. I have to be on my A-game, and I will be. I’m happy that throughout my career, I have faced the best opposition that I could have at every stage. This is just another one of those.”