diff --git a/deepspeed/runtime/engine.py b/deepspeed/runtime/engine.py
index 0b24595baaff8c27e30f18d9b332d5936abc698f..cbc4aa7e62d6fb46f38ecb9b8c57668ae1130dda 100755
--- a/deepspeed/runtime/engine.py
+++ b/deepspeed/runtime/engine.py
@@ -1227,7 +1227,7 @@ class DeepSpeedEngine(Module):
                 self.optimizer.load_state_dict(
                     checkpoint['optimizer'],
                     load_optimizer_states=load_optimizer_states)
-            else:
+            elif load_optimizer_states:
                 self.optimizer.load_state_dict(checkpoint['optimizer'])
 
         if load_lr_scheduler_states and self.lr_scheduler is not None: