Mum’s interest: Lawrence Okolie rules out fight with Joshua

 

Lawrence Okolie has ruled out ever facing his manager Anthony Joshua in the ring  because his mum would never let him.

Okolie, 28, has plans to become undisputed champion at 14st 4lb before moving up to the glamour division of the sport.

That could lead to an awkward situation if his manager Joshua is still reigning as a heavyweight king.

But mum Elizabeth won’t ever allow it to happen having seen how Joshua inspired Okolie to go from McDonald’s worker in 2012 to a Rio Olympian four years later and possibly a world champion tonight.

“I think that would be a conflict of interests,” said the unbeaten Okolie.

“He’s obviously someone who has been a massive inspiration to my life and boxing.

“My mum, first and foremost, would never accept it.

“I think she would be rooting for AJ. That is not one I really look at. She loves him.

“She knows the impact he has had, she has seen the change in me, they’ve spoken, she roots for him and supports him.

“If I say ‘I’m pushing all that to the side and I’m going to go after the money or whatever’. I don’t think she would be too happy about it.”

Okolie adores his mum after she raised him, his two brothers and his sister in a council flat in Stoke Newington in Hackney.

But he insists she won’t get to keep the belt, instead one day he wants to buy her a house.

“I would love to say it will go to my mum’s house but it will be at my house because when friends come over they should see they’re around the champion,” he said.

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“She is still living in the same flat I grew up in, it was a council flat but it’s now owned by us.

“At least she doesn’t have to pay rent and I have done it up.