Shepherds Bush Mikael Lawal has expressed his mission to conquer the world cruiserweight division – but for now he hopes his proposed British title eliminator with Steven Ward does finally happen on November 20.
In his first outing for just over 11 months ago, the 26-year-old completed a three round stoppage over Switzerland's erratic Benoit Huber at SSE Arena, Wembley – which incidentally is just half a mile away from his training base of Stonebridge Boxing Club – last Saturday on the very first co-promoted Wasserman Boxing and BOXXER event.
The decisive moment in this entertaining show opener came in round three when Lawal rocked Huber 34, who despite suffered a cut nose from the previous round kept on responding wild shots of his own, with a looping overhand right that immediately prompted referee Sean McAvoy to rescue the Swissman from further damage in 1.36 seconds.
Huber was fuming at the decision but Nigerian-born Lawal, who advances to 14 straight victories, believed McAvoy made the right call.
"I can see he (Huber) was out on his feet," he said. "I was going to finish off with a left hook but I left it. I looked at the ref and was thinking should I finish this then he came and stopped it.
"He could have got seriously hurt. He disagreed but I think it's just his ego, basically, and he was trying to prove a point or some sort.
"I'm just happy I got the win and hopefully I can get this fight with Steven Ward and that's something to look forward to."
Lawal was supposed to face Steven Ward on Saturday for the right to face British champion Chris Billam-Smith until the Ulsterman pulled out with injury.
He now hopes "The Quiet Man" will be fully recovered come November 20 again at Wembley's SSE Arena.
"I'm looking for the British title right now and just taking every necessary step to get to a world title," Lawal said. "First of all I just want to get the eliminator for the British title.
"We've sent an email to Stephen Ward's team so hopefully we can get this fight going on November 20. I'm hoping to get all my home fans to come and support me again."
The joint Wasserman Boxing and BOXXER promotion will also feature Finchley's newly crowned IBF International welterweight champion Florian Marku.
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