Martin Bakole calls himself the most avoided heavyweight on the planet and for good reason.
The Congolese fighter has put together an impressive run of performances in his last few fights. He knocked out Carlos Takam in late 2023 then went into a fight with the much-hyped knockout artist Jared Anderson in August 2024.
He had his man down more than once before then stopping him inside the first half of the fight. It was a breakout performance that confirmed Bakole belongs at the top of the division.
Despite that, he has often struggled to lure opponents into the ring with him. Next up he fights Efe Agaba in an IBF title eliminator and if he wins he will have forced himself into the frame for a potential world title shot against current holder Daniel Dubois, if ‘DDD’ can see off the challenge of Joseph Parker later in the month.
Speaking to Pro Boxing Fans, he was asked about comments from Dillian Whyte suggesting Joshua’s career is finished.
“He’s the one who’s finished. He finished his career bad. He should not even talk about boxing. He’s a drug cheater so he should keep quiet. [Anthony] Joshua still has a long way to go.”
Whyte has had a number of high profile run-ins with anti-doping, notably in the lead-up to his 2019 bout with Oscar Rivas when he returned a sample with ‘trace amounts’ of a banned substance. He was free to compete when the UK Anti-Doping Agency concluded he was not at fault and that the amount would not affect performance.
More recently, Whyte was pulled from a main event rematch with Anthony Joshua in 2023 when his Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency sample returned ‘adverse’ findings. He was subsequently cleared when he showed it was a contaminated supplement at fault, and has been in action twice since – stoppage wins over Christian Hammer and Ebenezer Tetteh.
As for Bakole, as well as a fight with the winner of Parker versus Dubois, there has also been plenty of talk that he could face Joshua. It has been suggested that it could be in the Democratic Republic of Congo sometime this year as a way of echoing the historic Rumble in the Jungle.
