HOT OR NOT: Lawrence Okolie’s rise from McDonald’s to cruiserweight world champion is remarkable, but you have to wonder what motivates Gareth Bale after talk of returning to Real Madrid
- Nine years ago, Okolie was working in McDonalds and weighed over 19 stone
- On Saturday, the 6ft 5in Londoner claimed this first world title in his 16th fight
- Chris Thompson won Olympic marathon trials a month shy of his 40th birthday
- Bale intends to return to Real Madrid despite being surplus to requirements
It’s Hot or Not time again as Sportsmail’s Riath Al-Samarrai reveals what’s been making him feel warm and what’s been leaving him cold this week.
HOT
Lawrence Okolie
We know by now that he worked in McDonald’s.
Lawrence Okolie has enjoyed remarkable rise from burger king to cruiserweight crown
And that he was clinically obese at more than 19st a few years back.
That’s old news but it also makes his newer status as a cruiserweight world champion all the more brilliant.
Chris Thompson
Just three weeks short of turning 40, he ran a personal best of 2hr 10min 50sec to win the British Olympic marathon qualifier in Kew Gardens.
Folk are within their rights to wonder about what role his footwear played in that, but only up to a point.
Chris Thompson won the Olympic marathon trials just a month shy of his 40th birthday
It was a stunning run from one of the nice guys.
Wayne Pivac
Somehow Wales lost in the final moments of that mad game against France and with it they lost out on what would have been one of the more remarkable Grand Slam achievements. It is always hard to find light in defeat, except when you
NOT
Gareth Bale
A prominent figure in any conversation about the best British players of recent years.
But you have to wonder about the ongoing question of his motivations when you hear him talking of a return to Real Madrid.
Gareth Bale intends to return to Real Madrid despite being surplus to requirements
It doesn’t have to be Tottenham, it certainly doesn’t have to be under Jose Mourinho, but it must be somewhere that he gets a game.
Eddie Jones
He got England to a World Cup final but increasingly that feels like it should have been the cut-off point.
Falling to Scotland, Ireland and Wales for the first time in a Five/Six Nations since 1976 brings that decision into sharper light.
It hasn’t aged well.
John Bowler
He has resigned from his long-held role as the chairman of Crewe after the publication of the Sheldon report into historic sexual abuse in football.
Not a moment too soon in the eyes of many survivors.
That pictures of Barry Bennell remained on Crewe’s stadium walls until 2017 was not their worst act in this horrible tale, but it says an awful lot.