When is Lawrence Okolie vs. Tony Yoka?
Lawrence Okolie vs. Tony Yoka is on Saturday, April 25. The broadcast will begin at 2 p.m. Eastern Time (7 p.m. BST).
What channel is Lawrence Okolie vs. Tony Yoka on?
Lawrence Okolie vs. Tony Yoka will stream on DAZN.
Where is Lawrence Okolie vs. Tony Yoka?
The fight is taking place at Adidas Arena in Paris, France.
Who is Lawrence Okolie?
Lawrence Okolie, 23-1 (17 KOs), is a 33-year-old former cruiserweight and bridgerweight titleholder who has been at heavyweight since 2024. The 6-foot-5 native of London, England, fought in the 2016 Olympics, losing in his second bout of the heavyweight (limit of 202.8lbs) tournament to eventual bronze medalist Erislandy Savon.
Okolie turned pro in 2017 and went 10 rounds for the first time within his first year, outpointing fellow undefeated cruiserweight prospect Isaac Chamberlain. He continued to pick up more wins and gave more fighters their first defeats, stopping Luke Watkins in three rounds, Yves Ngabu in seven and Nikodem Jezewski in two.
That set up a fight with former titleholder Krzysztof Glowacki in March 2021 for the vacant WBO belt. Okolie won via sixth-round knockout and began his two-year reign. He put away the 15-0 Dilan Prasovic in three rounds, outpointed the 21-1 Michal Cieslak and earned a unanimous nod against the 20-0 David Light.
The end came in May 2023, when Okolie lost a majority decision to Chris Billam-Smith. Okolie then was off for nearly a year. When he returned, Okolie seized the WBC bridgerweight title from Lukasz Rozanski with a dominant first-round TKO. Okolie had no designs on remaining in the fringe 224lbs weight class – or remaining anywhere near 224lbs in general.
By December 2024, Okolie was competing at heavyweight. He came in just shy of 261lbs for a one-round TKO of the 18-1 Hussein Muhamed. Okolie was 262lbs for a near-shutout decision over Kevin Lerena, another former cruiserweight and occasional bridgerweight. And this past December, Okolie was a shade higher than 271lbs for a two-round win over the 23-3 Ebenezer Tetteh. With all the extra poundage, Okolie doesn’t look ridiculously fit, but he doesn’t look worryingly out of shape either.
Who is Tony Yoka?
Tony Yoka, 15-3 (12 KOs), is a 33-year-old heavyweight from Paris, France, who stands 6-foot-7 and has recently been weighing in around 260lbs. Yoka won a gold medal at super heavyweight in the 2016 Olympics – but as you can probably tell by that number in the loss column, his pro career so far hasn’t been anywhere near as successful.
After winning his first five fights – including a 10th-round TKO of Dave Allen – Yoka was suspended for a year for not telling drug testers where he would be on three different occasions. He returned in July 2019 and got back to work, notching six more victories, including stoppages of gatekeepers Alexander Dimitrenko and Johann Duhaupas, plus a decision over Christian Hammer.
But then came three straight defeats. Yoka dropped a majority decision in 2022 to Martin Bakole. In hindsight, there’s less shame in losing to Bakole, even if it demonstrated that Yoka wasn’t yet capable of contending at heavyweight. Then 2023 came, and that was most definitely a harsher reality check, with Yoka losing via split decision to both Carlos Takam and Ryad Merhy.
Yoka has won four consecutive bouts since. Last year, he outpointed the 16-0 Arslan Yallyev and took less than two minutes to dispose of the 23-5-1 Patrick Korte. If Yoka is going to turn his career around, he will need to beat Okolie this week in Paris. Will Yoka be bolstered by his hometown crowd? Or will the pressure of the situation and the surroundings – never mind Okolie’s capabilities – be too much?
What other fights are on the undercard of Lawrence Okolie vs. Tony Yoka?
The undercard includes Bakary Samake vs. Ermal Hadribeaj – a battle of unbeaten junior middleweights who are looking to insert themselves into the conversation in a packed weight division. It helps that Samake-Hadribeaj is a WBC elimination bout, with the winner in position to challenge for the title currently held by Sebastian Fundora (Vergil Ortiz Jnr has the interim belt).
Samake, 19-0 (11 KOs), is a 22-year-old from France who is coming off a fifth-round KO of the unbeaten but untested 25-0 Alejandro Ortiz. Samake is rated No. 1 by the WBC, No. 4 by the WBO and No. 7 by the IBF.
Hadribeaj, 22-0-1 (8 KOs), is a 32-year-old Albanian. His most recent victory was a shutout on the scorecards against the 28-5 Placido Ramirez. Hadribeaj is ranked No. 3 by the WBC.
The full list of undercard fights can be seen on BoxRec.
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
