Lawrence Okolie will headline a show in Lagos, Nigeria, on Sunday, taking on Ebenezer Tetteh as he plots his way to a heavyweight title shot.
In the lead-up to his fight, Okolie travelled to Puerto Rico to help Jake Paul with sparring ahead of his bout against Anthony Joshua [Friday, 8 p.m. ET on Netflix.]
The former cruiserweight champion trained with Paul, alongside heavyweights Frank Sanchez and Jared Anderson.
ESPN sat down with Okolie ahead of an action-packed weekend of boxing.
You spent a few days sparring with Jake Paul, how did it come about?
“Me and Jake already follow each other and talk here-and-there, so there’s already that sort of connection. I said something because I felt like the fight was so unfair I wanted to go out and help him to make it at least a little bit more competitive.
“They must have picked up on that and said: ‘Actually, that makes sense.'”
How did he look in the ring?
“He looked a lot better than I thought he was going to look. It’s still a big ask obviously, but I left there a believer that it’s not… anything can happen in heavyweight boxing but I don’t see it as a ‘walk in there, hit this YouTuber and knock him out with the first punch.’
“I think [Joshua’s] going to have to earn it.
“And if AJ’s able to earn it, then it’s going to be exactly that, but he’s going to have to work for it, I think.”
What is Jake’s temperament like? We seem him as a big showman, but was he asking questions, wanting advice and getting involved in the technical side?
“Yeah, he was. He’s asking questions and he takes information really, really well. I think he’s really coachable, to be fair. He’s able to learn from a spar on Monday and show something different on Wednesday. Is two, three weeks enough to pick up enough to win this fight? I can’t say.
“But as a temperament, yeah, fantastic. He’s a true fighting man. I’ll be honest with you, I was shocked. I saw him in there with other heavyweights, he’s a true fighting man, but it’s a big ask.”
How much of the sessions was about him getting used to being in the ring with big heavyweights and taking shots?
“Yeah, pretty much all of it. You have to get [used to] conditions to going: ‘Oh that’s a body shot. Oh that’s the side of the head.’
“So I think we were just getting somewhere where I even started saying: “Oh, these spars are getting competitive. What the hell? He’s coming back.”
Can he knock Joshua out?
“If he hit him properly, yeah, of course. I think anyone over 180 pounds or whatever can knock out any size guy. I think if you hit them right and at the right time when they don’t see it coming.
“Is AJ going to be taking it lightly? I don’t think that’s his temperament, so I think it’s hard to land those type of shots against people who are switched on.
“But there’s always momentarily lapses of concentration, so you never know.”
