Lawrence Okolie has revealed that he provoked cruiserweight rival Richard Riakporhe at last week’s Creed III premiere in London.
Reigning WBO cruiserweight champion Okolie 18-0 (14 KOs), makes a third defence of his belt against New Zealander David Light on March 25 in Manchester, with Riakporhe in line to get a shot at his domestic rival should he come through next month’s bout.
Riakporhe 16-0 (12 KOs) defeated Krzysztof Glowacki in the fourth round of their contest on the Eubank Jr-Smith undercard in Manchester last month.
Okolie and Riakporhe were filmed being pulled apart by bystanders after trying to get to one another at the film premiere with the Riakporhe saying he felt “disrespected” that Okolie came into his space.
Okolie has now given his version of events about what exactly started the altercation on the Toe2Toe podcast.
Asked whether he attempted to gatecrash Riakporhe’s private conversation and provoke him at the premiere, he said: “To be honest, yes! I saw him enter into the place and it’s not like I hate him.
“I walked up to him and said ‘hey mate, you alright?’ He was kind of shocked that I walked up to him.
“I said ‘you been calling me out, now I’m here, live in the flesh so do you want to do this?’ He was like ‘yeah, I have been calling you out but now I’m here’ and I could see him really like getting pumped up.
“I was thinking, what’s wrong with this guy? ‘Relax brother and have a conversation’. Then he saw red, he pushed me, and it turned into a whole ruckus.
“I didn’t walk up to him with the idea of having a fight. I walked up to him to egg him on a bit and say ‘let’s make it happen’. It turned into what it turned into.”
