SHANE MCGUIGAN reckons Lawrence Okolie is too mentally weak to defend his world title against Chris Billam-Smith on Saturday.
The expert coach and son of Irish ring legend Barry trained both cruiserweights for around four years and oversaw around 300 rounds of sparring between them.
Okolie, 30, left the gym on good terms at the start of the year to move to Dubai, with the WBO crown McGuigan helped him land in 2021.
And now he heads to Bournemouth’s Vitality stadium to face his 32-year-old former stablemate – at his boyhood club – and the good will and respect is starting to fade.
“Chris is naturally a tougher man than Lawrence,” McGuigan said at his Leyton gym. “He’s naturally more brave.
“Lawrence has ‘self preservation’ stamped on his forehead.
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“He doesn’t want to go to the well and that’s why he boils himself down from 108kg to 90kg instead of moving to heavyweight, it’s so he has an advantage.
“In everything Lawrence does he always wants an advantage. He always wants to be one step ahead.
“He has a massive advantage, he’s physically a much bigger specimen than Chris. He’s stronger than him when you get him in the weights room, he punches harder than him.
“All of these things favour Lawrence but, in mindset, Chris is a much superior person. And, also, he can go in there and put himself on the line.”
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Undefeated Okolie, now 19-0, has sensational knockout power in his right hand but has a fair reputation for being in a handful of underwhelming wins.
And McGuigan reckons his man will spring the surprise as long as he survives the first few rounds and drags Okolie down the stretch.
The 35-year-old coach said: “He is either boring the place out or knocking them out with one shot – because he’s got the power. There is no in between.
“He’s never thinking it through or breaking someone down. It’s always either he blitzes you or hits you with a few good shots, they weather it, and he wins in a boring, messy way.
“It’s up to us to ensure we can negate what he does well.
“First off, get through the first three or four rounds. If we do that we can chip away, land a few good shots and then make sure we negate what he does well.”
McGuigan concedes a year ago it would have been tough to back CBS to beat the 6ft 5in Hackney ace.
But now his man is on a run and has the backing of the Prem side and the seaside town, he can only see a new British world champion emerging.
“I think you’d have to say ‘Okolie win’,” he said about a bout 12 months ago. “But at the same time he’s now finding a new style and Chris has got better.
“We know what we have to do. It’s a world title fight, at home in front of 15,000 people.
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“Out of the champions at cruiserweight, I favour us against Lawrence because we know him well.
“I know what his weaknesses are mentally and physically. It means we can go in there with a structured game plan to give ourselves the best opportunity.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
