Despite his recent loss to Joseph Parker, Martin Bakole gained a reputation as a heavyweight boogeyman for a reason, a reason that began back in 2022.
Martin Bakole is now 21-2 in his professional career after losing in his latest fight to Joseph Parker. Bakole stepped in for Daniel Dubois on just one day’s notice, and came in overweight and likely over-exhausted, having landed in Saudi Arabia the morning of fight night.
His first loss came from Michael Hunter in 2018 when he was stopped in the final round of their encounter.
Despite these losses, he is still considered a boogeyman, especially after Bakole’s stoppage win over Jared Anderson. However, his feared reputation actually began in 2022.
Martin Bakole upsets Olympic medalist and begins his downfall
In 2022, with his best win to date being then 15-1 Sergey Kuzmin, Bakole, who was one of the heaviest boxers ever in his last fight, took on Tony Yoka.
Yoka was an 11-0 professional, and an Olympic gold medalist, having won the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
The pair fought in Yoka’s hometown of Paris and Yoka was dropped twice, but once the fight went to a decision, it was only a matter of time before Yoka knew his next fight would be for his career.
Bakole won a majority decision over Yoka, and became known as the ferocious man with knockout power who also beat an Olympian. Yoka meanwhile was forced to try to bounce back from the loss, and so fought a recognizable name in the division, Carlos Takam, next.
Again Yoka fell short, his inactivity led to a split decision win for Takam, and the second loss of Yoka’s pro career.
Yoka’s bad luck continued, though, when just months after the Takam fight, he lost another split decision to Ryad Merhy.
Yoka has now recovered from his three consecutive losses, with two TKO wins over opponents with a combined record of 11-22-1.
Tony Yoka returns to Paris to face undefeated opponent next
Following his consecutive losses Yoka’s last two fights have been staged in the UK. For a while it was unclear who Yoka’s next opponent would be, or whether he’d decided to retire after all.
Many have pointed to Joe Joyce, who is set to face Filip Hrgovic next, as an option, given Yoka beat him in the Olympics in a controversial decision, and this could still happen sometime down the line.
However it has now been announced that Yoka will return to Paris on May 17th to face Arslan Yallyev, a 16-0 Russian with ten knockouts to his name.
It seems this may well be Yoka’s last chance to salvage his career, a career that was going so well until the Congolese boogeyman, Martin Bakole, came into the picture.
Bakole will face Efe Ajagba next on the undercard of Canelo Alvarez vs William Scull.