Lawrence Okolie could have been Isaac Chamberlain’s best friend but instead he wants to smash him to pieces – slowly
LAWRENCE OKOLIE could have been Isaac Chamberlain's best friend - instead he wants to slowly smash him to pieces on Saturday when they settle their British Beef.
The London crusierweights have been at loggerheads for over a year, with the rivalry ramped up to 11 in the last month since their fight was announced as the headline act at the O2.
Brixton’s Chamberlain posted a mock-up CV to help Okolie look for work in his local Hackney paper.
And the Eastender – who once worked in McDonalds – hit back by parking a burger van outside his rival’s gym and dishing out food and tickets in a bid to sway supporters.
But it could have been so very different for the two success stories - Isaac growing up in poverty and Okolie battling obesity and bullying - had a budding friendship not turned bitterly sour.
Okolie told SunSport: “In a different time – in a different place – Isaac and me could have been best friends. But unfortunately it has to be this way.
"I am going to give you an exclusive; knocking him out in round one would be sensational but I want to take it longer and make him take more punishment.
“I want to show boxing ability and that I can hurt him at any time. I don’t want it to be over in a flash with bells ringing in his ears. I want it to go slow.
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“Maybe bust his nose, then his eyes, make his ribs hurt him, make his hands hurt from punching my elbows.
“A one or two round job would be fun but it’s not what I want for this.”
Okolie is not a menacing character – devastating as his right hand might be – but he has been pushed to the edge by his 23-year-old opponent.
The feud went up a notch in November when he was confronted by his nemesis in public, when he was looking after his little brother. From that moment, it was war.
He said: “We were alright once and spoke on Facebook but if I looked back at the messages it was just me looking for sparring really.
“We were not ‘friends friends’ but we were boxers of the same weight, in the same area.
“But things kept coming back to me – rumours of things he was saying – and when you are young those things have more of an effect.
“I have seen so many lies that he has told so it makes it hard for me to trust anything he says.
“Isaac is very good at playing possum and making out that the whole world is against him and that he is innocent.
“But when you look at his verified Twitter and Instagram accounts to see the truth. People should just have a look and forget what is being said.
“Have a look and see that he has insulted the way I look – comparing me to animals – posted about the way that I fight, all long before this fight was announced.
“It is very easy for him to sit there now and say he is a victim but the hard facts are there.
“He came up to me in public in November – when I was with my little brother – and made a scene so he better be ready to fight.
“That is when I really pushed for the fight and said ‘enough talk’”.
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The online baiting has gone too far for Okolie and causing a scene in front of his family has lit a fire inside him.
But the CV stunt Chamberlain pulled did put a smile on the 25-year-old’s face – even if he doesn’t believe his enemy is clever enough to have come up with it.
The aim has been to get inside Okolie's head, drag him in to a battle and distract him from his gameplan and it has succeeded, with Okolie only too happy to oblige.
He said: “If I get angry then I don’t need a gameplan, I just need to hit him and take him out.
“I watch him and do not see where the notion of him being some master boxer comes from, we will find out on Saturday.
"Isaac will not get into my head, he is not mentally sure of himself and he needs a big team and entourage to tell him how good he is – but they cannot get in the ring with us.
“At that point we both have no team and it's just us in the wilderness having a fight.
“I found the CV stunt funny, I still struggle to think that Isaac was smart enough to come up with that. But maybe he really is a master comedian.
“I liked it because a bit of limelight and pressure on him, he published that so he better be ready to back it up.”