Between May 2022 and December 2023, the 2016 Olympic gold medallist lost three consecutive decisions to Martin Bakole, Carlos Takam and, most surprisingly, Ryad Merhy.

Rather than throwing in the towel on his career, Yoka (15-3, 12 KOs) regrouped, decamped to Don Charles’ training facility in Hertfordshire, England and set about reconstructing his life and career.

The 33-year-old has recorded four consecutive victories and rebuilt his self-belief to the point that he goes into a fight with one of the heavyweight division’s most avoided fighters with full confidence that he holds the advantage in almost every department.

“Lawrence has an awkward style, the way he grabs people. He was doing it at cruiserweight because people were smaller and shorter than him,” Yoka said during an interview with talkSPORT.

“But now we're in heavyweight and he hasn't fought a real heavyweight. I’m taller, bigger and physically stronger than him. He cannot like rush me or try to be ferocious like he’s said. That’s not going to happen and plus, I'm way more technical than him. So like there is no way.

“I've been smiling for 10 days now because I know I'm going to win this fight and have this position. So I'm just happy.”

Should Yoka beat Okolie (23-1, 17 KOs), he would expect to slot into the WBC rankings just behind interim champion and The Ring's No. 3-ranked heavyweight Agit Kabayel.

It was recently announced that Kabayel will get his shot at WBC, WBA, IBF and The Ring heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk immediately after the Ukrainian's May 23 voluntary title defence against Dutch kickboxer Rico Verhoeven.

Yoka was ringside in Oberhausen, Germany to see Kabayel's third-round finish of Poland's Damian Knyba on January 10.

A lot needs to happen before he and Kabayel can share the ring but Yoka wasn't impressed by the German's win over Knyba.

“What I saw from Kabayel's last fight was not good. He wasn't good. He did what he had to do. I was there in Germany and saw that he got touched every time. That's a really good opportunity for me.”