Lawal began living in a hostel, where his key worker referred him to boxing as a means to deal with his behaviour and anger issues.
He immediately took an interest to the sport but after a while began to struggle with the financial commitments to pay for training and finding a suitable amateur club.
After a recommendation from one of his cousins, he visited Stonebridge Amateur Boxing Club where he rekindled his love for boxing and was eventually offered access to the gym free of charge by Aamir Ali, the clubs Director, as he saw the potential in Lawal.
[1] Lawal made his professional debut in April 2017, defeating Jindrich Velecky via a 1st-round TKO win.
On 14 October 2017, he was featured on the undercard of George Groves versus Jamie Cox, at Wembley Arena defeating Tomislav Rudan in two rounds.