Martin Bakole doesn’t subscribe to the thinking that what happens in sparring should stay in sparring.
The 31-year-old has made no secret about getting the better of his rivals behind closed doors, claiming to have stopped the recently undisputed Oleksandr Usyk with a body shot and broke the nose of Daniel Dubois – now also world champion – not once but twice. Bakole has also claimed to have hurt Anthony Joshua and Joe Joyce.
He told The Independent that the sparring sessions have actually hindered his career.
“The only mistake I made, and even my coaches are telling me, is that they allowed me to spar these top guys. These guys know they don’t belong where they are now, because if I stand with them, I give them problems. I only show them three or four punches, because I’m coming to help them; but even in helping them, I’m giving them problems. I’m a machine in there, throwing as many punches as I can. I don’t get tired, I keep coming.”
Of the top fighters Bakole has sparred, and there are plenty, the Congolese heavyweight says Tyson Fury is the only man to make it competitive.
“He’s the only man where we shared a ring and it was 50-50. When we spar, everyone in the gym is quiet, focused, watching us. I give him a fight, he gives me a fight back, and I always learn a lot. Every time he calls me, I always go. I don’t know if I’ll meet him one day in the ring; all I know is he’s the only one who can give me good sparring, because we keep coming forward and stand and fight like Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.”
This year Bakole got the chance to show and prove on the big stage and he did so in emphatic fashion. He was matched-up with rising American star Jared Anderson and stopped him unflinchingly in five rounds.
