Cruiserweight contender Richard Riakporhe felt there was a disconnect between Lawrence Okolie and new trainer SugarHill Steward.
Last Saturday night at Vitality Stadium in Bournemouth, Okolie suffered the first loss of his pro career at the hands of Chris Billam-Smith.
During the fight, Okolie was dropped three times. And was he was penalized two points for excessive holding.
Billam-Smith is trained by Shane McGuigan, who Okolie cut loose in favor of Steward.
Riakporhe, who sat ringside for the contest, felt something was missing from the Okolie-Steward partnership.
“There’s something with his style that doesn’t gel with the new coach,” Riakporhe said to Sky Sports. “I don’t know, maybe there’s something in his mind, I think he’s lost a lot of confidence as well. There’s a lot of factors. But who knows?”
Okolie has the option to exercise an immediate rematch clause. At the moment, Okolie appears to be motivated to secure a second fight.
Riakporhe wonders if Okolie is struggling to make the cruiserweight limit of 200-pounds. In the past, Okolie, who stands at 6’5 and is very long, has mentioned the possibility of heading up in weight to the heavyweight division. Before doing that, Okolie wanted to unify the cruiserweight division, but that goal took a big setback with the recent loss to Billam-Smith.
It could be the time, says Riakporge, for Okolie to put on some mass and head up.
“Maybe he needs to do that,” Riakporhe said of Okolie moving up. “Even the punch resistance looked a bit shaky. He doesn’t get caught with a lot of shots anyway so why can there be some type of issues when he’s getting hit with left hooks like that? It doesn’t make sense.
“Maybe I think it’s time that he grows into his actual real bodyweight and let the frame put the weight on.”