Lawrence Okolie vs. Ebenezer Tetteh | DAZN - 21 December 2025

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This is now the 21st Dec

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Lawrence Okolie Reveals The One Person Who Persuaded Him To Box In Nigeria

Lawrence Okolie has revealed it was his Lagos-born mother Elizabeth who convinced him to agree to a Nigeria boxing debut this weekend.

The 32-year-old will face Ebenezer Tetteh at Onikan Stadium, Lagos on Sunday at the top of the latest Balmoral Group promotion streamed live on DAZN.

But former cruiserweight world champion Okolie (22-1), who is signed with Queensberry Promotions, had no shortage of options for his first fight back since injuring his bicep during his lopsided points win over Kevin Lerena at Wembley in July.

However, once an outing in the Nigerian capital was on the table, there was no way his mum was going to allow him to opt for any other fight.

"Initially I was a bit 50-50," Okolie told The Ring. "There was a show in England where Derek Chisora was meant to be the headline and I was contemplating that one.

"But when I decided to go for the Nigeria opportunity it was because my mum was shouting at me: 'you have to, no, you have to take it'. So I took that route instead of the usual one I would take and it has ended up working out. She's over the moon."

Okolie was a ringside guest for the most recent show staged by Balmoral and their forward thinking frontman Ezekiel Adamu. That night, Wednesday October 1, Brandon Glanton forced Marcus Browne into a sixth round retirement and Okolie got a flavour of the atmosphere that will greet him on Sunday night.

"I went to that event in October and got FOMO," Okolie continues.

"I watched the fans, the event, I saw it all happening live, the fireworks and everything. I was just like: 'wait, why am I not involved?' I'm Nigerian. I'm a former world champion, surely I must get a slot.

"It's also how I was received. I'm going to gyms and my face is painted on walls. But because I was born and lived in England, everything's England, I forget that there's actually a whole country where they're into boxing, they know Anthony Joshua, myself, Moses Itauma, David Adeleye.

"They see it's a Nigerian name and get behind like that so I just wanted the opportunity to showcase a bit of what I do elsewhere in Nigeria. So I just spoke to the promoter and said 'let's get this done'."

Okolie was born in Stoke Newington in the east London borough of Hackney to his parents Elizabeth and Lawrence Sr, who had not long been in the capital when their son arrived.

He attended school locally and went on to represent Team GB at the Olympics but has always been fiercely proud of his Nigerian heritage and returns to Lagos regularly.

"Being able to fight there now is the best," he said. "Just being able to say, for my mum, my dad, for the heritage, to show my skills that I've been blessed to be good at. To take it back to the city that my parents were born in.

"A lot of their friends can only send me messages of congratulations and never been able to actually watch me fight. They've just heard about their nephew or family member who's doing it in England but now I get to showcase in front of them, so it's really exciting.

"There is going to be a lot of uncles and aunties who always send their prayers and now they get to see it in person. They'll get to come into the dressing room to give their prayers in real life, wish me the best and then I can go make it happen."

Okolie has made no mistakes since stepping up to heavyweight 12 months ago, stopping Hussein Muhamed in the first round of their contest at Wembley Arena last December before his 10-round decision win against Lerena across the road at the stadium.

Tetteh, now 37, is not expected to last very long against big-punching Okolie, who is the third Brit in a row he has faced. Tetteh was stopped by Dillian Whyte in the seventh round of a bizarre tear-up in Gibraltar a year ago before Frazer Clarke needed just 112 seconds to dispose of him in Birmingham on April 20.

They will feature in the main event while Tony Yoka, the 2016 Olympic champion, is a late addition to the card while Adeleye, originally scheduled to feature, is now conspicuous by his absence. Yoka (14-3, 11 KOs) will face Germany's Patrick Korte (23-5-1, 19 KOs) over 10.

"There's screaming from women, men, children, just all screaming and shouting," Okolie adds of the atmosphere he’s expecting to greet him.

"There's an electricity about it and pride. I see it like how people are with their football teams; it's like it means a lot to them to see their guys go on and win, I just can't wait to sort of feel that energy on the day."

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Full Fight Card

Lawrence Okolie vs. Ebenezer Tetteh
Tony Yoka vs. Patrick Korte
Elvis Ahorgah vs. Benn
Shiloh Defreitas vs. Kabiru Salawu
Adebayo vs. Shogbesan
Chukwudi vs. Animashaun
Joy vs. Boateng

[SeanBrennan]

Card started half hour late, and has been littered with tech issues so far, I hope it’s a success but this has been very difficult to watch literally so far.

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Card started half hour late, and has been littered with tech issues so far, I hope it’s a success but this has been very difficult to watch literally so far.

Typical. Happened last time on Khan’s Nigeria card

[Controversial]

Tetteh looks 10 years older than his claimed age

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[veriton]

Adam Smith needs to take a chill pill, he's trotted out everything obvious except shouting ungawa

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Don’t back to back shows. Ghana to Nigeria

[MightyWarrior]

What an embarrassing main event the guy looks absolutely useless

[MightyWarrior]

sure there’s a lot of people enjoying watching the debt collector ebeneezer get a beating.

Brilliant, world-class commentary as ever

[joshj909]

Hughie Fury KO'd this 41 year old in 2 rounds. Anything less than a first round KO would've been embarrassing

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[Controversial]

What a dire card and event, I know the commentators have a job to do but I don’t know what they were watching as they made it sound like they were at MSG lol.

[paultom]

What an embarrassing main event the guy looks absolutely useless

Agreed, he was poor against CBS years ago and hasn't improved at all since

[gregregegg]

What trash.

Poor from okole, meaningless from yoka, just nothing gained..

Also if you wanna do some African showcases you might actualy have to make them good.

[MasterG]

How did Harley Benn get on?

[Old bones Ian]

Here's the highlights, at one point Ebonezer is on the ropes with his hands at his side and somehow Okolie manages to get in a clinch , that's the highlight

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Fighter on here had 7-1-2 record & Smith said he was virtually unbeaten.

[keithmoonhangover]

Poor from okole, meaningless from yoka, just nothing gained..

Money? Tick over?

[golden_labrador]

Here's the highlights, at one point Ebonezer is on the ropes with his hands at his side and somehow Okolie manages to get in a clinch , that's the highlight

[golden_labrador]

regardless, I think Okolie could be fun to watch against the current top 10 guys. it's like there's genuine dangerous potential in there and he's doing his best to suppress it most of the time. I can see people avoiding him

[handsofstone]

Waste of time as expected, Tetteh always looks like a man who's never boxed in his life, Okolie was landing some bombs in the 1st nearly decapitated him with a right hand, already Tetteh had his eye on the exit door, Okolie had him down in the 2nd, cuffing left hook although the right before it was the damaging punch, little surprise Tetteh never came out for the 3rd


Okolie looks weird as a heavyweight, his body shape is bizarre, looks swollen