A REM MATCH against Chris Billam-Smith is “the only way” for Lawrence Okolie, says his coach Sugar Hill.
The two cruiserweights met last weekend at AFC Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium in front of 15,000 fans, largely in support of Billam-Smith. Twelve tough and difficult rounds ended with a majority decision for the crowd favorite.
Okolie already had a rematch clause in place in case he lost and his cornerman reported it Boxing News They want the second fight.
“Yes, that is the only way. You don’t want to wait and try to get a rematch. You want to get it immediately. Based on his statements, he obviously knows that he has done some things (wrong) and he wants to correct those things. He wants to write down his wrongs and be victorious.”
What transpired between the two battling friends was a chaotic contest filled with incidents, point deductions and Billam-Smith running through everything Okolie had to offer. Is Hill confident the result can be reversed in a rematch?
“I’m very confident about that,” he replied.
“I was confident in this fight. I will have confidence in every fight. That will be something me and Lawrence talk about and try to figure out for him. If I had said “cuckoo” or something like that, maybe he would have gone back to how he was in training camp and not been so scared. I don’t know. I’m a crazy thinker, so sometimes you have to think outside the box to make things work right.”
The neighborhood itself told the story BN afterwards in his dressing room that the rematch is what he wants next.
“It must be. I’m not the type of person to think, Oh, let these two guys fight and this, that and the other. We’re running it back.”
Billam-Smith agreed that Okolie wanted nothing more than a chance at redemption.
“He is a proud man. He’s a winner at heart and I think that makes sense to him and why wouldn’t he? You have the chance to win a world title again, it’s not like I got it without any mistakes. So yeah, I assume he wants the rematch.”
