Former two-weight world champion face former Olympian in next heavyweight outing.
In 2021, Lawrence Okolie stopped Krzysztof Glowacki to win the vacant WBO cruiserweight title. He would make three successful defences of the championship before losing to Chris Billam-Smith in 2023.
Deciding the loss was a sign of an overdue move up in weight, Okolie left the 200-pound division and made a stop at bridgerweight, knocking out Lukasz Rozanski–the division’s unbeaten WBC titlist–in one round.
Okolie would quickly vacate this WBC bauble in his climb up to heavyweight, where he made his debut in December of 2024 by flattening Hussein Muhamed in the opening frame.
What followed was a far less explosive performance in an outpointing of Kevin Lerena on the Oleksandr Usyk vs. Daniel Dubois 2 undercard.
Okolie was last seen taking out Ebenezer Tetteh in December, an opponent who provided no sort of issue when he was stopped in two rounds in Nigeria.
That bout had been the main event for that show, but in the co-main event, Tony Yoka stopped Patrick Korte in the first round.
Now Okolie and Yoka will share a card once again, but this time, they will be facing off against each other.
Yoka won the gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics and was fast-tracked as a professional, going 11-0 against experienced opposition before losing three consecutive fights to Martin Bakole, Carlos Takam, and Ryad Merhy.
Yoka (15-3, 12 KOs) has built back with four wins in a row since then (the most recent being his aforementioned win over Korte), but a win over Okolie (23-1, 17 KOs) would truly put him back on track.
The heavyweight clash between the Englishman and Frenchman is set to be supported by a super-welterweight contest between Bakary Samake (19-0, 11 KOs) and Ermal Hadribeaj (22-0-1 (1), 8 KOs).
The action will all be going down at the Adidas Arena in Paris, France, on the 25th of April.
Double trouble in Paris đź—Ľđź‘€
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Heavyweights Lawrence Okolie and Tony Yoka will clash in a huge Paris showdown while hometown super-welterweight star Bakary Samake takes on the hard-hitting Ermal Hadribeaj at LE DOUBLE on… pic.twitter.com/zRgP7QJEVG
— Queensberry Promotions (@Queensberry) February 26, 2026
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