In the final of three title fights going down in the United Kingdom over the weekend, an all-English clash will take place between Lawrence Okolie and Chris Billam-Smith for the WBO World Cruiserweight Title. Okolie heads into the clash as the defending champion and looks to be favoured to defend his belt. However in front of a raucous crowd, can Billam-Smith pull off an upset?
Okolie also heads into this clash looking to keep his unbeaten record alive. The 30-year-old is 19-0-0 across his professional career and is the current WBO World Cruiserweight Champion after winning the vacant title in 2020. While Billam-Smith has just the one loss on his record, he won’t be wanting to double that figure this Saturday night in Bournemouth.
We break down all the latest odds from bookmaker William Hill and offer up our best bets on Lawrence Okolie vs. Chris Billam-Smith fight before the first bell.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: May 27th, 12:30 A.M. (GMT)
Unsurprisingly, the undefeated defending champion is the heavy favourite in this bout. Lawrence Okolie pays 1.28 for the win here, well ahead of Chris Billam-Smith’s 3.50 to win on Saturday. The bookies believe this fight will end by way of an Okolie knockout, with this result paying 1.83. Next most likely is Okolie on points, while Billam-Smith’s odds are long for either outcome, at 9.00 and 6.00 respectively.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: May 27th, 12:30 A.M. (GMT)
It’s hard to see Chris Billam-Smith finding a way to win here. While Okolie has won his past two fights on the judges’ scorecards, prior to that he was on a seven-fight knockout streak. The defending champion is fighting with confidence and doesn’t know what it tastes like to lose yet. While Billam-Smith will push him hard, it’s unlikely that this flavour will debut in Okolie’s mouth on Saturday night.
In terms of bets to make, taking a punt on an Okolie knockout is the most conservative wager. It offers a little less than 2-1 odds, while still being a very likely outcome. Overall Okolie has a 73.68% knockout rate, having finished 14 men this way across his professional career. As mentioned earlier, he did so seven times in a row between 2019-2021 and chances are he’ll return to his knockout ways this weekend.
A higher odds version of this bet would be to wager on Okolie scoring a knockdown in the first two rounds. While not a guarantee, Okolie does have the power and the propensity to do this and for a return of 6.50, this is an excellent risk to take.
