Lawrence Okolie has been pressured to withdraw from his heavyweight conflict with rival Londoner Richard Riakporhe.
Okolie was on account of field Riakporhe on April 5 however has suffered an damage.
Okolie misplaced his WBO cruiserweight world title to Chris Billam-Smith however went on to win the WBC’s bridgerweight belt.
He has now moved as much as heavyweight and can battle Riakporhe in that weight class.
Riakporhe is a former world-title challenger at cruiserweight, after boxing Billam-Smith at Selhurst Park in London. He has a simmering rivalry with Okolie, that dates again to an altercation on the Creed III movie premiere in London.
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Chris Billam-Smith relived his world title victory in opposition to Okolie and shared the feelings he felt through the largest night time of his profession
However their battle is now on maintain.
Joe Joyce was additionally initially meant to field Dillian Whyte on the identical invoice in Manchester as Okolie-Riakporhe however Whyte was dominated out with a broken finger.
Filip Hrgovic will now are available to field Joyce, promoter Frank Warren confirmed to Talksport.
Olympic silver medallist Joyce is getting back from a shock loss to Derek Chisora and can’t afford a second consecutive defeat.
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Billam-Smith despatched the hometown crowd wild as he delivered Okolie’s first knockdown of his skilled profession
Hrgovic is an previous rival of Joyce’s. He misplaced to the British heavyweight after they have been amateurs in a World Collection of Boxing bout they usually got here near assembly once more within the 2016 Olympic Video games just for Hrgovic to undergo a contentious determination defeat to Tony Yoka.
Croatia’s Hrgovic has been working at a excessive degree as an expert. His lone defeat got here in opposition to Daniel Dubois of their IBF Interim title battle. He holds a 2022 win over Zhilei Zhang, who handed Joyce two stoppage defeats the next 12 months.
Thrilling heavyweight prospect Moses Itauma can be added to the invoice and David Adeleye’s battle with Jeamie TKV can be for the British heavyweight title, beforehand held by Fabio Wardley.
