In the final seconds of the round, Okolie connected with another right that nearly dropped Tetteh.
After the round ended, Tetteh seemed unwilling to continue. This is what seemed obvious. He was hit in the round with a lot of jabs from Okolie, which the referee should have warned about, but didn’t.
Okolie also grabbed the back of Ebenezer’s head on a few occasions, pulling him forward while hitting him with uppercuts while he was bent over. Again more illegal stuff that should have resulted in a warning.
Late in the second round, Lawrence tagged Tetteh with a right to the head and then floored him with a left hook to the head. It was a picture-perfect rabbit punch that caused the knockdown. Did the referee penalize it or drop it? No. It was anything that went inside the ring, and poor Tetteh was out on his own with no one to protect him.
In the final seconds, Okolie again nailed Tetteh with a rabbit punch. He then looked at the referee and showed his displeasure with the illegal punch. Still nothing from him. The round ended after that, with no further extras.
Not surprisingly, Tetteh chose not to come out for the third round, and who can blame him? He was overmatched tonight. The constant rowhouse tactics of Okolie made things even worse.
Okolie weighed 271 lbs and had a sizable pot belly. He looked nothing like his old self when he held the WBO cruiserweight title from 2021 to 2023. The way he fought tonight, it wouldn’t be a good idea to let him anywhere near WBO champion Fabio Wardley or Agit Kabayel.
“This is the position I’m used to being in, champion of the world. In 2026 I guarantee it,” Neighborhood said about Moses Itauma wanting to fight next in a WBO title eliminator.
