Lawrence Okolie in negotiations with Luis Ortiz for heavyweight fight

Lawrence Okolie is negotiating with two-time world heavyweight title challenger Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz. The former WBO cruiserweight champion (21-1, 16 KOs) is taking a slow approach to acclimating to the heavyweight division.

Cuban Ortiz (34-3, 29 KOs) will turn 46 on March 29 but remains dangerous due to his power, size and technical skills. His ring IQ and athletic ability are above that of Okolie, who is 6’5″. If Ortiz lands on the uncoordinated ‘Sauce’ Okolie, he could knock him out and ruin his heavyweight ambitions.

Okolie against Ortiz in process

Okolie’s two heavyweight fights have been against Hussein Muhamed and Lukasz Rozanski. Both guys were terrible and completely useless at developing Okolie in any real sense to prepare him for a world title shot. However, if the idea is to feed Okolie tomato cans to make him appear invincible, pitting him against these types of fighters is the way to go.

In Lawrence’s last fight at cruiserweight, he was defeated by Chris Billiam-Smith, losing by majority decision in 12 rounds on May 27, 2023. That fight was the writing on the wall for Okolie that his time was up. as ‘champion’ in Cruiserweight. Okolie would not fare well with the talented new generation of wrestlers, Jai Opetaia and David Nyika. Therefore, he moved up to heavyweight to reinvent himself.

Ortiz is coming off a first-round knockout victory over Francisco Cordero last year on January 13 in Colombia. “King Kong’ Ortiz had been inactive for two years before that after losing a 12-round unanimous decision to the former world champion. andy ruiz on September 14, 2022.

Ortiz gave Ruiz hell in that fight, frequently landing on the beefy 268-pounder. If it weren’t for Ruiz knocking Luiz down in rounds two and seven, the Cuban would have won. In Ortiz’s previous fight on January 1, 2022, he knocked out former heavyweight champion Charles Martin in the sixth round.

Former cruiserweight champion Lawrence Okolie, now campaigning at heavyweight, is in talks to fight Luis Ortiz in the United Kingdom, a source told ESPN. Ortiz, 45, returned last January in a fight to shake off the rust. It was his first fight since a competitive loss to Andy Ruiz in 2022.

—Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) January 20, 2025