She took eight types of medication twice a day, and Plant brought her to doctor’s appointments almost daily.Īfter she was placed on life support for a sixth time, however, Plant made the most difficult decision imaginable. His daughter, Alia, was born with brain damage and fell gravely ill - at one stage in her young life suffering from roughly 200 seizures per day, feeding through a tube and sleeping with a heart monitor and oxygen per an interview with Plant in The Tenessean. These losses, though, would pale in comparison with what was to follow. He remained on the straight and narrow through kickboxing, firstly, and later boxing, but lost numerous friends to drink, drugs and crime some of them imprisoned, some of them worse off.
Plant and his family lived in a two-bedroom trailer in Ashland City, a town situated some 40 kilometres from Nashville. The six-foot-one stylist was born into poverty so severe that when he was brought home from hospital as a baby, he was placed in a dresser drawer which his father pulled out and lined with blankets. Plant’s purse of $150,000 might go some way toward paying for the wedding, but with a world-title belt now slung over his shoulder, bigger nights, fights and paydays lie on the horizon. 0dyFIjnd90- FOX Sports: PBC January 14, 2019 Rewatch this action packed Super Middleweight showdown. In his dressing room post-fight, it was Plant who took a knee: ‘Sweethands’ proposed to his sweetheart, an employee of promotional outfit Premier Boxing Champions and Fox Sports on whose card Plant had achieved his life’s dream.
Plant scored two knockdowns en route to a unanimous-decision victory over ‘Bolivita’, defusing most of the feared puncher’s work with clever footwork and head movement while peppering the South American where opportunities presented themselves. I’ve changed how I look at myself, how I look at the world, and I’ve improved my lifestyle.AMERICAN SUPER-MIDDLEWEIGHT CALEB Plant had quite the Sunday evening.Īfter nearly a year out of the ring, the Nashville native upset Venezuelan badman Jose Uzcategui at Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater to claim the IBF world title at 168 pounds. While flipping burgers in McDonald’s, I found my ambition and now I’m a boxing champion. Okolie writes: “I’m proud of the changes I’ve made to my life. Self-help bookĪlongside his boxing, Okolie is releasing an autobiographical self-help book next month entitled Dare to Change Your Life (Penguin). “That’s the fight we want to see,” Hearn told the BBC. However, fans – and Okolie’s promoter, Eddie Hearn – hope that a battle against 37-year-old Latvian IBF champion Mairis Breidis is on the cards. Okolie’s next opponent is undetermined, but possible challengers include Congolese WBC champion Ilunga Makabu, French WBA ‘Super’ champion Arsen Goulamirian, or British boxers Chris Billam-Smith or Richard Riakporhe.
What’s next for Okolie?Īfter his Sunday win, Okolie has the opportunity to unify the division, which is to win two or more of the major sanctioning titles in a division: World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Council (WBC), International Boxing Federation (IBF), The Ring, and WBO. Since his 2018 debut, Okolie – nicknamed ‘The Sauce’ – has risen through the boxing ranks to become a world-recognized force, ranked as the world’s third best active cruiserweight by The Ring as of February 2022. “I eat all the wonderful fruit and vegetables out there, rice, grains – basically stuff that gives me energy to train but then it’s not as hard to process in my body,” said Okolie. On his diet, Okolie told Sky that he is “mainly vegan”, not eating “meat, fish, eggs, or cow’s milk”, and has found that a plant-based diet helps with weight maintenance and improves his energy levels.
BOXER PLANT PROFESSIONAL
Okolie – who was born in Hackney, London to Nigerian parents – has followed a plant-based diet since he became a professional boxer in 2017. On the undercard, another British vegan boxer, Olympian Cheavon Clarke, made his professional debut with an explosive victory against Croatian Toni Visi.
It may not have been his greatest performance to date, but Okolie remains an undefeated world champion, now with 18 consecutive wins as a professional boxer. “I will go back to the gym, go again and make it right the next time,” Okolie added. This was one of those days where it was tough, awkward, and the guy was physically strong, but I need to work on the mentality that it doesn’t need to be perfect. Okolie told 5 Live Boxing: “It was a flat performance and I allowed it to get messy. Okolie, 29, fought Polish boxer Michal Cieslak, flooring him in the fifth round of a battle that BBC Sport called ‘comfortable yet scrappy’. Plant-based British boxer Lawrence Okolie retained his World Boxing Organization (WBO) cruiserweight world title on February 27, after securing it last year.
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