Lawrence Okolie v Hussein Muhamed - Tale of the Tape: Weight, height, reach, trainers, records & more

We analyse the credentials and statistics of heavyweight stars Lawrence Okolie and Hussein Muhamed as 'The Sauce' makes his first venture into the blue-riband division in Birmingham on Saturday night.

Former cruiserweight and bridgerweight king, Okolie, is set to kick off his campaign to become a three-weight world champion and will be hoping for a performance which will put the division on notice.

Muhamed has predominantly faced low-level opposition but will be hoping to ignite his professional career by claiming the scalp of the Rio 2016 Olympian.

The big question is who will prevail?

It's time to look at the 'Tale of The Tape'...

Lawrence Okolie v Hussein Muhamed - Tale of the Tape

	Lawrence Okolie	Hussein Muhamed
Age:	31	33
Nickname:	'The Sauce'	N/A
Height:	6ft 5ins	6ft 5ins
Reach:	82.5ins	N/A
Weight:	Heavyweight	Heavyweight
Trainer:	Joe Gallagher	N/A
Record:	20-1 (14 KOs)	18-1 (14 KOs)
Last Fight:	Won (KO) v Lukasz Rozanski (May 2024)	Won (UD) v Ali Kiydin (May2024)

Lawrence Okolie - In Profile

For a long time, the whole was less than the sum of its parts when it came to Lawrence Okolie.

Blessed with long arms, a tall frame, quick feet and power, ‘The Sauce’ should have been a dominant force at cruiserweight, but despite these physical advantages, bouts were often harder than they needed to be.

Less skilled opponents were able to close the gap and expose the greatest limitation of the Rio 2016 Olympian: his inability to fight on the inside.

With no other option available in his arsenal, Okolie was forced to clinch and hold and it regularly made for a messy fight.

Despite this flaw, he found glory, winning the WBO cruiserweight title and making three successful defences of it.

Ultimately, Okolie was hard to watch, harder to beat, and that was the case, until it wasn’t.

Former gym-mate, Chris Billam-Smith, had the number of ‘The Sauce,’ dropping him three times in a fight which Okolie suffered two point deductions for excessive clinching.

After losing his title, the 31-year-old moved up to bridgerweight, winning the much-maligned WBC title in a one-round blowout of Lukasz Rozanski.

There were signs of improvement up in weight and under the tutelage of Joe Gallagher, but it was admittedly, against low-level opposition.

It was speculated that Okolie would spend some time in the 224lbs division before moving up to heavyweight formally, but he has eschewed that option in favour of seeking glory in the land of giants by becoming a three-weight world champion.

His fight with Hussein Muhamed will likely offer little in the way of a clear indication of whether his quest will be successful, but it is an opportunity to spot further signs of improvement.

Strengths:	Weaknesses:
Height and reach	Inability to fight on the inside
Power	Clinches excessively
Athleticism	Can be predictable
Right-cross	Lack of feints

Hussein Muhamed - In Profile

On paper, Hussein Muhamed looks like a decent test for Okolie’s maiden fight at heavyweight.

The German is a tall, fully-fledged heavyweight, who has a bit of pop on his punches and has only suffered a single defeat.

While all that is true however, it only tells half the story because Muhamed has beaten all those he was supposed to beat.

In the only real test of his career, he was stopped in three rounds by Zhan Kossobutskiy.

Of course, this is heavyweight boxing, and one punch can change a fighter’s career, but it seems unlikely that will be the case for the German.

This one will likely finish early.

Strengths:	Weaknesses:
Applies pressure well	Head falls over front foot
Right-cross	Falls forward after throwing punches
Physically imposing	Open defensively
Boasts some power	Susceptible to body shots