Lawrence Okolie and Scott Fitzgerald's next fights are set for Manchester in July.
Matchroom Boxing announced a card taking place at the Manchester Arena on July 6 and will feature a pair of title fights. One of them is Okolie taking on Jack Massey for the British and Commonwealth cruiserweight titles while the other will see Fitzgerald defending his WBA International junior middleweight title against Brian Rose.
Okolie's fight announcement comes as a bit of a surprise after it had been heavily discussed that Okolie would face WBA champion Denis Lebedev later this year. The announcement does mean that Okolie won't be fighting for a world title in his next bout with Lebedev still looking for an opponent.
The unbeaten Okolie has held the Commonwealth title since June 2018 when he stopped Luke Watkins at York Hall and has also held the British title since September 2018 when he won a unanimous decision against Matty Askin at Wembley Stadium. Massey is an undefeated boxer who once held the WBC Youth Silver cruiserweight title and is coming off a points win over Kent Kauppinen this past March.
Fitzgerald is coming off one of the biggest wins of his career when he scored a split decision win over Anthony Fowler to win the WBA International title back in March. The win also made Fitzgerald take Fowler's spot as the mandatory challenger to Ted Cheeseman's BBBofC British title. Rose once held the British title and has challenged for a number of regional titles throughout his career. The 34-year-old Rose is on a two-fight win streak.