A rematch against Chris Bellam-Smith is “the only way to go” for Lawrence Okolie, says his coach Sugar Hill.
The two teams met last weekend at Bournemouth's Vitality Stadium in front of 15,000 fans, largely in support of Pillam-Smith. 12 tough and difficult rounds ended with the crowd favorite receiving a majority decision.
A rematch clause was already in place for Okolie if he lost and he informed his assistant Boxing news They want the second fight.
“Yes, that's the only way to go. You don't want to wait and try to get a rematch. You want to get him right away. Obviously he knows there are some things he did (wrong) with the statements he made, and he wants to correct those things. To write down his mistakes and want to win.”
What transpired between the two warring friends was a chaotic contest filled with incidents, points deductibles and Bellam Smith riffing on everything Okolie had to offer. Is Hill confident the result can be reversed in the rematch?
“I'm very confident of that,” he replied.
“I was confident in this fight. I'll be confident in every fight. This will be something that Lawrence and I talk about and want to figure out for him. Maybe if I had said a peekaboo game or something like that he would have gone back to the way he was doing in training camp and not been so worried I don't know. I'm a crazy thinker so sometimes you have to think outside the box to get things right.
The neighborhood itself said son It was in his dressing room afterwards that a rematch was what he wanted next.
“It has to be. I'm not the kind of guy who likes to let these two guys fight this and that and the other. We're running it again.”
Pelham Smith agreed That Okolie would want nothing else but a chance at redemption.
“He's a proud guy. He's a winner at heart and I think that makes sense for him and also why wouldn't he do it. You have a chance to get a world title shot again, it's not like I got him out clean. So, yeah, I expect him to want a rematch.”
