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 in Rio 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 in Rio, 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.

Relishing a brawl  
Like Joshua, psychosocial studies university student Okolie comes into the Rio boxing competition — which starts on Saturday — 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.
“Obviously I’m here for the fighting side of it. As much as I love boxing, every now and again you want to dominate. And if I get dominated then at least I know that person was better than me.”
The decision to include professionals in the Olympics was deeply controversial.
Several big names from professional boxing flirted with the possibility of jumping on the plane to take part in Rio, but none did in the end.
Despite that Okolie is anticipating more aggressive fights than in previous Games — and he appears to welcome it.
“In the amateurs you can box and not hit too hard but hit often, and you’re gonna win medals,” he said.
“But in the professionals people might not enjoy watching you if you fight like that. So it makes it more of a brawl, more of a fight.”