LONDON, England — Lawrence Okolie racked up his most significant win as a heavyweight without too much trouble but this was not a performance that will have struck much fear into the rest of the division’s major players.

After 10 low-action rounds with Kevin Lerena, the man from across London in Hackney won via scores of 100-90 on two scorecards and 99-91 on the other. The victory moves him to 22-1, 16 KOs and still very much part of Queensberry’s bustling chasing pack of heavyweights.

Those lopsided scores told the story of this fight, with Okolie’s physical advantages simply too much for Lerena to breach. But this comfortable win was not one for the highlight reel.

Okolie had opened his account at heavyweight in December, blowing away the once-beaten yet badly over-matched Hussein Muhamed inside a round at Wembley Arena. But seven months on, a couple of pounds heavier and now across the road at Wembley Stadium, Okolie was faced with his real acid test at heavyweight.

Southpaw Lerena, although also a former cruiserweight and bridgerweight, once dropped Daniel Dubois three times in the opening round of their heavyweight clash before he was stopped. He also came within a whisker of knocking out Justis Huni when they met in Riyadh last year.

Okolie, who is already ranked No.1 by the WBC, had been scheduled to fight Richard Riakporhe back in April but pulled out through injury but made it to this one, as the chief support for Oleksandr Usyk v Daniel Dubois II, fit and firing.

With significant height and reach advantages, as well as packing 30lb more weight, Okolie did not appear to be boxing someone from the same division and he spent much of the first round keeping Lerena in the mid-to-long range with his jab, which he speared into the head and body.

Considering he is now 60lbs heavier than he was during his reign as WBO world cruiserweight champion, Okolie was moving well up on his toes. Lerena, meanwhile, was looking to get close and time counters, particularly with the overhand left.

But this was not a fight high on action and too often Okolie’s long, straight one-twos were fired directly into Lerena’s watertight guard. Even so, it prevented the South African from ever being able to set himself for any meaningful attacks of his own. Towards the end of the fourth, he had some minor success up close which was food for thought for the Englishman.

The sixth had been all Okolie, who was now directing most of his attacks with the right hand to Lerena’s stomach, but he shipped a big left hook as the round neared its end. It was not enough for Lerena to claim the round but it was at least a hint of ambition.

If the chief support bout is supposed to act as an hors d’oeuvre for the main event and liven up the crowd before the big one - this one was not having the desired effect. By the time the eighth round rolled around, Wembley was close to capacity but the attritional affair in the middle of the pitch had left things flat.

Things did not get better in the ninth and, at one point, it even looked like Okolie was looking to the big screen to see how long was left while they clinched. Then, in the 10th, Lerena pointed to the floor in a clear signal for Okolie, still circling, to stand and trade. He did not, but he had done more than enough in the eyes of the judges to win by a stretch.