Martin Bakole is a happy man having secured a huge fight with Joseph Parker this weekend.
Parker was set to get a world title shot against Daniel Dubois in Saudi Arabia this Saturday. The former WBO ruler has been in camp for months but with two days to go, news Broke that Dubois was unwell and was soon pulled out on account of having a virus.
Bakole is a towering Congolese fighter who has been much avoided in recent years on account of the problems he can cause fighters.
He has sparred with the likes of Dubois and Oleksandr Usyk and insists he broke the former’s nose twice and knocked the second one out behind closed doors.
Parker is a man in form right now. He is coming off the back of two big wins over Zhilei Zhang and Deontay Wilder and is a smart fighter who can take a punch, so Bakole – who was not in camp – will have his work cut out if he is to win.
However, he didn’t hesitate to take the opportunity as his promoter Ben Shalom has revealed to Boxing Social.
“You’re not going to stand in Martin Bakole’s way. He wanted the fight. There was no hesitation. It was 100%, he told me, the team all told me ‘go and get the f***ing fight made.'”
Bakole standing in very much preserves this card as one of the best in years with the likes of Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol fighting it out for undisputed light heavyweight honours and Zhang taking on Agit Kabayel, amongst other great match-ups.
