Boxing: Kiwi David Light loses to Lawrence Okolie WBO world cruiserweight title fight

David Light punches Lawrence Okolie during their WBO World Cruiserweight title fight at AO Arena in Manchester. Photo / Getty

Kiwi boxer David Light couldn’t drag Lawrence Okolie into deep waters in his bid to dethrone the reigning WBO cruiserweight champion, falling to a unanimous decision defeat in Manchester.

Light, who fights under the nickname of ‘the Great White’, struggled to get inside the range of the 196cm champion and when he did get into range, he was rarely allowed to fire meaningful shots in volume as Okolie clinched up.

For the majority of proceedings, Okolie tried to keep Light on the end of his jab. While Light did get the champion on the backfoot with frequency, Okolie was doing enough to edge out most of the rounds. One judge scored all 12 rounds to the champion - although the 11th was a 9-9 draw as Okolie was docked a point for holding. Light was given four rounds on another scorecard, and two rounds on the third.

While it was largely one-way traffic, Light earned the respect of his counterpart, who credited the tactics of Light and his team.

“David Light was extremely tough and he had a good tactic of moving around to his right to take away my right hand and when he got inside he really went to work,” Okolie said.

“It was a good tactic and it was hard for me to shake it off because after a year out of the ring, I’m trying to get myself pumped and going, but it’s tough. No need to make excuses, just [have] to get better.”

Light was able to do some good work mixing up his targets, with body shots key to trying to slow down Okolie. While he did some of his best work as the fight got into the championship rounds, Light found himself in big trouble at times.

After some strong moments in the ninth round where it looked like he had Okolie feeling to impact of some of his cleaner shots, Light was rocked in the 10th when Okolie split his guard with a powerful right hand; well-hidden behind his jab. While he followed that shot up with two more strong rights that connected with the target, Light was able to stay on his feet and force clinches as he recovered.

It looked like Okolie’s opportunity to finish the fight had gone, but in the 11th round he had Light wobbled once more with a good combination, but again the Kiwi stayed upright.

Okolie said he was impressed with Light’s durability and defensive work in those testing situations.

“I always believe seven to nine are my rounds to get people out,” Okolie said. “I think that’s when I started hurting him; he was dancing around the ring and I couldn’t get that last shot to get him out of there and drop him. He was very tough and very good with his hand defences.”

It was the first loss in 21 professional bouts for Light, but he gave a strong showing on the biggest stage of his career, and it was the first time since 2018 that Okolie failed to drop or stop his opponent.