Lawrence Okolie vs. Chris Billam-Smith & Sam Eggington vs. Joseph Pigford RBR.

Okolie took Wlad's dirty game to the next level - he was disgusting and helpless, two points deducted is even a compromise - the guy was shouting for a disqualification. He made the fight unwatchable. I can't understand how can he lack so much dignity and intelligence not to see and care how he looked and what was the referee constantly warning him about.

 

Okolie was very graceful in defeat. I don't like him as a boxer or a person however have to give credit in the way he handled the defeat. Most boxers, when they lose, give credit to the opponent in a backhanded way by saying he was the better man on the night. I don't feel anything of the sort with Okolie's post fight comments. He gave FULL credit to CBS and Shane.

I feel like Buatsi and Okolie have used boxing as a means to get "wealthy". Absolutely nothing wrong with that as its their job/income at the end of the day. You can tell they both like their holidays and travelling more than they do their boxing however you can also see that in the ring when they fight. The both look like they don't really want to be in the ring. They both look like going nowhere fast in terms of their career or development and both are lacklustre to watch as well.

 

It's easy to say this and you might be joking of course, but corruption in favour of who? Okolie has almost no base to defend, his promoter isn't exactly Mr Big and had both sides of the outcome in his pocket anyway... Bookies?

 

Am I the only one who doesnt think 112-112 is that outrageous? I didn't score it but you could argue Smith didn't win many if any rounds outside of the KOs and the point deductions would have been 9-9 imo.

 

I know what you are saying, however 112-112 is not a good look. CBS clearly won more than 3 rounds.

 

I never joke Bob.

Well, once I made a quip, but it's not something I'm looking to repeat...

I genuinely think it's corruption in this case though. I think there's a pattern that's pretty obvious in scorecards, particularly in fights where there's promoter capital invested in both parties.

As a general rule, one of the cards will favour the money fighter.

I take your point about Boxxer having an option on both guys but think this is still clearly Okolie on the basis of the money Sky have invested to take him from DAZN and his higher profile and potentially higher ceiling. They wanted to preserve that value or indeed the attraction of the rematch and in this case the ridiculous drawn card allows Shalom or A N Other six months from now to to parrot something along the lines of the fight being closer than many thought, on another day it could've gone Okolie's way etc etc.

I also think the wild cards, like Adalaide Byrds, seek to move the Overton window of fight fans expectations, they draw all the attention and we end up talking about the one bad apple judge rather than the other two who have delivered more subtly biased cards.

Of course I see crooked judging everywhere, so maybe I'm off with this. I'm not though, I'm spot on

 

I thought he said "you can't DQ a champion for holding" or something to that effect. Which made me wonder: has a champion (especially a well-connected one) ever been DQ'd for holding? And if not, what is the maximum number of points deducted in a fight for holding from a champion with A-side advantage?

It got me thinking about Klitschko-Povetkin: perhaps there was no precedent for DQ'ing Klitschko for holding and no precedent for deducting say more than 2 or 3 points from the champion for holding. If that's the case, the 15 clinches per round gameplan was effectively a guaranteed win for Wlad provided he didn't get caught by a KO punch in between boxing at long-range and grappling. But Okolie didn't have the skill or the chin to pull it off here.

 

Okolie lost that fight as much as CBS won it.

Typical Okolie will never learn, scared to death of getting hit he’d rather lose 2-3 points by clinching/pushing. 2 of the knockdowns came because he lost his balance trying to hold and got caught on the way down.

Glad CBS won because no boxing fan could ever get behind Okolie as a champion but bit upset he never stepped on him and got the KO after the first knockdown that put him on his arse.

 

Spot on. I always see this too. Whoever the promoters can make more money on are the ones continuously getting the dodgy decisions. I’ve turned very cynical with most things in life and it’s a sad fact of life that it makes me correct an awful lot more often than not. I think it was a disgusting scorecard.

 

Akinwande was DQed when he has the WBO belt against Lewis who had the WBC iirc. I know the WBO was worth as much as my Rolex from Turkey but still.

 

That's the only one to comes to mind but Akinwande wasn't seen as the champion and as you say the WBO wasn't generally recognised. Lewis was the champion and the clear A-side. And I don't remember Akinwande throwing punches in that fight, whereas Okolie (for all his faults) was usually throwing a right hand before he fell in and started grabbing.

So if the Akinwande fight is the closest we have to a precedent for a well-connected champion getting DQ'd for holding then it's unlikely Okolie was ever going to be DQ'd. Even non-champ Okolie was only deducted 3 points against Askin and would have still won by MD if he'd had a 4th deducted.

 

Excellent post. Makes me think I wonder what happened to Akinwande. You never hear of him. He had such a weird career too didn't he.

 

You selling it?

 

hahahaha it got wet and stopped telling the time within a week.

I sold it to my (now ex-)brother in law as he can't tell the time anyway....

 

How can some negative losers on here criticise Billam-Smith

He just beat the consensus number 1 in the division, a very awkward, huge at the weight, spoiling, strong powerful opponent. You're never gonna beat Okolie pretty. Billam-Smith deserves huge credit for his mental toughness, chin , stamina and gameplan there. Excellent win for him