- 1,612
- 9
- 38
Shalom acknowledged against Light that Okolie "didn't get the statement that he'd have liked with the knockout, but he had him there three times, I would say, when he could have knocked him out".
Light, however, was previously unbeaten and demonstrated highly-impressive punch resistance.
"He's extremely tough. So we feared it would go 12 rounds because of how tough he is," Shalom said. "We had to do the mandatory [defence]. We knew it was going to be a tough fight. We knew it was going to be a tough opponent and it might not look pretty at times given how resilient David Light is."
Okolie, however, remains in a strong position. "He did hit him with a lot of big shots. I think he'll feel like he could have jumped on him at certain points and really put the pressure on him and got him out of there," Shalom said.
"But he keeps his title and now the mandatory's out the way, he doesn't have to worry about that for the next 12 months and he can get straight to Richard Riakporhe or a unification.