The British-born Nigerian Lawrence Okolie has extended his hold on the WBO cruiserweight title after he narrowly defeated Poland’s Michal Cieslak in an evenly matched contest.
Okolie at the O2 Arena in London took entire control of the fifth round but was unable to finish off the relentless Cieslak and had to fight through to the 12th round on a decisive victory.
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The victory of the British professional boxer is his 18th win in a row and the second time he is retaining the WBO cruiserweight title after he won the vacant diadem in March 2021 against Poland’s Krzysztof Glowacki at the SSE Arena in London.
Anxiously, Okolie who wanted to conclude the contest to evade the decisive judgement of the match officials, struggled to get slim 117-110, 116-111, and 115-112 on the scorecard.
However, the British professional boxer had wanted to make a bold statement with the clash ahead of his promotion to the heavyweight tier but Cieslak put up a shocking performance to tarry the contest to the 12th round.