Daniel Dubois and Oleksandr Usyk are the two current top dogs in the heavyweight division, but one man is confident he has the beating of both.
Usyk defeated Dubois on his way to becoming undisputed champion but was forced to vacate one belt, allowing the Brit to pick it up as he was the interim titlist.
One man who is keen to get his shot at either champion is Martin Bakole, who is coming off solid wins against Carlos Takam and American prospect Jared Anderson.
“Martin wasn’t fully fit when he sparred Daniel, about 70% fit, and schooled him. Stopped him, made him quit and broke his nose. It’s fact. Martin’s already told people what happened. I was there. Barry McGuigan was there. I’m not telling lies.
And he’s also stopped Usyk as he’s told you before, albeit I wasn’t there. But why would he come out publicly, live on Sky Sports, and say that he stopped Usyk if he didn’t?”
The Congolese heavyweight had been ordered to face Agit Kabayel next to become mandatory for Dubois’ IBF belt, but the German has pulled out of purse bids.
Bakole has previously spoken about his difficulties landing the big fights due to his performances in sparring. He has now claimed that Kabayel has also ‘ran away’ from facing him.
“I came to inform you about the Kabayel fight. I’m so disappointed that Kabayel has pulled out of this fight. He doesn’t want the smoke, he doesn’t want the smoke from the Congolese Warrior.
“I don’t know why they are hiding, I don’t know what they don’t want the smoke. I can see they don’t want to get knocked out, and now everyone can see that. I think people now they are believing me that people don’t want to fight me cause they know I will knock them out.”
Bakole is now after a fight with Zhilei Zhang, which would be an explosive contest indeed. It has been ordered by the IBF as an eliminator to replace the Kabayel bout. Should ‘Big Bang’ not go ahead with it, it will be hard to deny Bakole’s claim as the most avoided in the division.
