As previoulsy announced, the world heavyweight championship will be contested on July 19th in England when Oleksandr Usyk defends his crown against IBF titleholder Daniel Dubois, a rematch of Usyk's previous win. In the first of two featured fights that have now been revealed, two-weight champion and now heavyweight contender Lawrence Okolie (pictured) will face WBC bridgerweight champion Kevin Lerena from South Africa. At light heavyweight, the British and Commonwealth champion Lewis Edmondson will go up against Ukrainian challenger Daniel Lapin. Some tickets remain for the Usyk vs Dubois superfight at Wembley Stadium on 19 July and are available from ticketmaster.co.uk and rtticket.com.
Okolie, 21-1 (14 KOs), won the WBO cruiserweight world title in 2021 with a knockout victory over Krzysztof Glowacki and went on to make three successful defences. He then won the WBC bridgerweight world title with a first round KO of Lukasz Rozanski in Poland before making the switch up to heavyweight with another first round triumph over Hussein Muhamed in December 2024. At cruiserweight, Okolie was also British, Commonwealth and European champion after featuring at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
Lerena, 31-3 (15 KOs), became IBO world cruiserweight champion in 2017 with victory over Youri Kayembre Kalenga and went on to make six successful defences before making the switch to heavyweight and claiming a win over Mariusz Wach. Now 33, Lerena came very close to a major upset when he travelled to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in December 2022 to take on Dubois on the undercard of Tyson Fury’s world title defense against Derek Chisora. After losing a decision defeat to Justis Huni, Lerena’s most recent action came against Serhiy Radchenko in Pretoria, where he stopped the Ukrainian in the third round. He is currently recognized as the WBC bridgerweight champion since Okolie vacated that title.
Edmondson, 11-0 (3 KOs), became British and Commonwealth champion in his 10th fight when he took a step up in class against former European champion Dan Azeez in London and inflicted an unexpected defeat over 12 rounds in his first title fight. Most recently, the 29-year-old defended his Commonwealth belt against the previously unbeaten Oluwatosin Kejawa and secured victory via a unanimous decision in Bournemouth.
Lapin, 11-0 (4 KOs), is an established member of Team Usyk and the Kyiv southpaw won his maiden title, the IBO Continental, with a defeat of Aro Schwartz in 2023. Last year, the 27-year old added a first-round stoppage of Octavio Pudivitr in Riyadh before securing a unanimous points victory over Dylan Colin.
Some tickets remain for the Usyk vs Dubois superfight at Wembley Stadium on 19 July and are available from ticketmaster.co.uk and rtticket.com.
