Lawrence Okolie Set for Heavyweight Debut on December 7 at OVO Arena Wembley

Former two-division world champion Lawrence Okolie is scheduled to make his heavyweight debut on December 7 at the OVO Arena Wembley in London, confirmed by Queensberry Promotions.

Okolie (20-1, 15 KOs), who previously held the WBO cruiserweight title, recently signed with Frank Warren's Queensberry after leaving Ben Shalom's BOXXER in mid-October. He will face Germany's Hussein Muhamed (18-1, 14 KOs), who has one loss on his record—a third-round knockout defeat to Zhan Kossobutskiy in 2022.

The 31-year-old Okolie lost his cruiserweight title in 2023 during his fourth defense against Chris Billam-Smith. Since then, he has fought once, securing a first-round technical knockout victory over Lukasz Rozanski in Poland in May, which earned him the WBC bridgerweight belt.

Headlining the December 7 event, WBO No. 2 Denzel Bentley (20-3-1, 17 KOs) will compete against WBO No. 4 Brad Pauls (19-1-1, 11 KOs) for the British and WBO international middleweight titles. Bentley previously faced middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhanuly in a competitive 2022 decision loss, while Pauls achieved an upset victory over Nathan Heaney with a final-round stoppage in July.

In addition to the main bouts, British heavyweights Solomon Dacres (9-0, 3 KOs) and David Adeleye (12-1, 11 KOs) will clash for the English championship. Lightweight prospect Sam Noakes (15-0, 14 KOs) will also be in action against Ryan Walsh (29-4-2, 13 KOs) for the British, Commonwealth, and WBO international titles.

The card will feature a cruiserweight matchup between Aloys Junior (8-1, 7 KOs) and Lewis Oakford (6-1, 0 KOs), along with Sean Noakes (8-0, 4 KOs) and Mathew Rennie (13-0-1, 1 KO) vying for the vacant English welterweight title. Dublin's super lightweight prospect Pierce O'Leary (15-0, 8 KOs) is also set to return against an opponent to be determined.