Lawrence Okolie returned to motion with an underwhelming factors win over New Zealand’s David Light in the third defence of his WBO cruiserweight title in Manchester.
In his first outing since beating Michal Cieslak on factors in February final yr and his subsequent acrimonious cut up from promoter Eddie Hearn, Okolie struggled to impress however nonetheless skated away to a unanimous resolution that extends his unbeaten file to 19 fights.
It was hardly the emphatic message the 30-year-old Londoner had hoped to ship in his first bout beneath new coach Sugarhill Steward, but it surely saved him on observe of realising his dream of a future cruiserweight title unification combat.
Former Commonwealth Games medallist Light entered the bout as an enormous underdog regardless of his personal unbeaten file, and provided no actual menace in the primary half of the combat that was devoid of main highlights.
Okolie was nicely on high regardless of failing to unduly bother his opponent in a scrappy contest that was more and more marred by spells of holding.
He made a breakthrough in the tenth spherical with a proper hand that clearly wobbled his opponent, and belatedly delivered extra punishment in the eleventh, however Light gamely caught round to see the ultimate bell.
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