Sparring rumours always circulate in boxing, though some pick up more momentum than others.
The unwritten rule is that boxers should not share what has gone on behind closed gym doors during a training camp. There are too many factors which can affect things and mean sparring is a long way from how an actual fight would play out.
Boxers spar at different times of day, at different points in the camp, and at different levels of tiredness and preparedness. Some sparring is purely technical. Sometimes a fighter will rotate sparring partners and take on fresh opponents after already having done many rounds of their own, all of which mean an apparent victory over someone wouldn’t necessarily translate into a real fight.
Congolese heavyweight Martin Bakole however has claimed to talkSPORT Boxing that has stopped Brit Daniel Dubois twice in sparring and given the likes of Oleksandr Usyk, Joe Joyce and Anthony Joshua similar trouble.
“Ask anyone about me. Go ask Daniel Dubois about me, ask Joshua about me, ask Usyk about me, ask Tyson Fury about me, they will keep quiet.
Nobody will say they gave me a hard time. I gave them all a hard time. I stopped Daniel Dubois twice, stopped Joe Joyce and Joshua oh, that was a big one, he was hurt that day.”
Bakole claims his performances in sparring mean he is now being avoided.
“It is a very big risk I took because now nobody wants to fight me because they know who I am in the gym.”
Last time out he knocked out tough contender Carlos Takam and now the WBA No.1 ranked fighter is set to face young American rising star Jared Anderson in Riyadh Season’s first overseas event on August 3 in Los Angeles, while Dubois defends his IBF title against Anthony Joshua in September.
