A rematch against Chris Billam-Smith is the “only way” for Lawrence Okolie, says his trainer Sugar Hill.
The two heavyweights met at AFC Bournemouth's Vitality Stadium last weekend in front of 15,000 fans, mostly in support of Bill Smith. A tough 12 rounds ended with the crowd favorite winning a majority decision.
The rematch clause was already in place for Okolie when he lost and his cornerback reported Boxing news they want a second fight.
“Yes, this is the only way. You don't want to wait and try to get revenge. You want to get it right away. He obviously knows there were some things he did (wrong) in his statements and he wants to correct those things. He wants to write his mistakes and he wants to win.”
It was a messy contest between the two battle buddies, full of incidents, point deductions and Bill-Smith looking at everything Okolie had to offer. Is Hill confident the result can be changed in the second leg?
“I am very sure of it,” he replied.
“I was confident in this fight. I will be confident in every fight. This is something Lawrence and I will talk about and want to clear up for him. Maybe if I said peekaboo or something, he would go back to how he did in training camp and not be so anxious. I don't know. I'm a crazy thinker, so sometimes I have to think outside the box to make things work properly.”
The surroundings spoke for themselves BN in his dressing room after that a rematch is what he wants next.
“It should be. I'm not the kind of person who wants these two guys to fight, either. We're running it back.”
Billam-Smith agreed that Okolie would like nothing more than a chance at redemption.
“He is a proud man. He's a winner at heart and I think it makes sense to him and why not him. You have the opportunity to win the world title again, it's not like I outright challenged it. So, yes, I expected him to want a rematch.”