From McDonald’s to tilt at boxing gold

RIO DE JANEIRO: Lawrence Okolie remembers very clearly what he was doing four years ago when fellow British heavyweight Anthony Joshua won Olympic gold — he was battling the bulge and working in McDonald’s.

Fast forward and the 23-year-old Okolie is here and taking inspiration from Joshua, who since Olympic glory in London 2012 has ploughed his way through the pro ranks to become the unbeaten IBF champion, boasting a perfect 17-0 record — all by knock-out.

Okolie, who took up boxing to fight his ballooning weight, hopes one day to emulate his friend to become a major name in the boxing world.

He says he admires how Joshua deals with the mounting expectation. “Watching him in world title fights kind of takes the pressure off this stuff,” said Okolie, who was unable to watch most of the London Games because he was working in the fast-food restaurant.

During a brief work break, Okolie did though manage to see Joshua become Olympic champion, and it made him think.

Okolie is relishing the battle here, but knows this is just the first step if he wants to become a respected professional heavyweight — and is keeping a sense of perspective. “Obviously the Olympics is a big show and getting an Olympic gold is one of the biggest things you can do, but at the same time, there’s world title fights, there’s wars, there’s massive things going on all around and all we’re doing is having a little fight,” he said.

Like Joshua, psychosocial studies university student Okolie comes into the Rio boxing competition — which starts on Saturday (tomorrow) — with limited boxing experience having qualified after just 23 amateur fights.

Unlike Joshua, Okolie will need to negotiate an Olympic boxing tournament that for the first time will have professional fighters — albeit only three of them in all.

Another major change sees no headguards and judges will decide who wins the bouts, rather than the unpopular punch-scoring system.

It is all designed to bring Olympic boxing closer to the professional fight game and Okolie is anticipating a real scrap for gold. “It makes it a bit more of a fight, which I kind of enjoy,” he said.