Zuri Lawrence is a professional heavyweight boxer best known for scoring a few notable wins over famous boxers but never reaching contender status. He is most well-known for having never scored a knockout win in 44 professional fights.
Career
He stands 6'4" and has a typical fight night weight of between 230 and 240 pounds. His professional record stands at 24 wins, 14 loses and 4 draws with 1 no contest. Lawrence has never fought for a major heavyweight title but he is an important test for many up-and-coming prospects. Notable losses include a technical knockout loss in 11 to Russian prospect Sultan Ibragimov and being brutally rendered unconscious by Calvin "the Boxing Banker" Brock. Notable wins include upsetting the comeback trail of Jameel McCline after McCline's second heavyweight title loss and being the first to defeat highly touted Italian Olympic medallist and prospect Paolo Vidoz. Lawrence is a quick and skilled boxer who is rarely stopped and can give 12 rounds of technical boxing; this combined with his seeming lack of the ability to knock an opponent out makes Lawrence a popular opponent amongst matchmakers looking to get some notice for their prospects. Prior to their fight Calvin Brock gave an example of this thinking in an interview with Tiger Boxing: “Zuri Lawrence? Sure. He’s good, but he doesn’t have any power, so I wouldn’t call it a high-risk fight." In November 2007 Lawrence took on Hasim Rahman on short notice on TV channelVersus. In a close battle in which Versus' viewers had Lawrence leading, he was knocked out by Rahman in the 10th and final round. The scores at the time of stoppage were 86-84 Lawrence, 86-84 and 88-82 Rahman. In a rare feat, Lawrence was knocked out of the ring and onto the arena floor, only to return to the ring prior to the 20 count and continue fighting. In July 2008 Lawrence won in a huge upset over heavyweight prospect Albert Sosnowski after taking the fight on late notice. He fought Jason Estrada on September 2, 2009 and which Lawrence was knocked down once in the second and once in the seventh before the referee stopped the fight at 2:33.
