Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk are seen by most as the top three active heavyweights in boxing.
Fury will look to avenge that loss and take his place back on top when they rematch in December. Ahead of that, Joshua will have the chance to become a three-time world champion when he faces newly-elevated Daniel Dubois this month for a belt that Usyk recently vacated.
The picture at the top is intriguing, but so are the men knocking on the door. Exciting fighters like Zhilei Zhang, Joseph Parker and Agit Kabayel have all been worth watching in recent times and will look for world title shots in 2025 should the belts fragment.
Perhaps the most discussed man on the scene recently is Martin Bakole who, after long claiming to have been a nightmare in sparring for the top dogs, got his chance to show and prove on the big stage. He demolished rising star Jared Anderson in five rounds.
Speaking to Seconds Out, former cruiserweight world champion turned pundit Johnny Nelson pictured the big man from the Democratic Republic of the Congo giving the three best ‘hellfire.’
“You could put him in with almost anybody. I thought his hands were so loose. His style was very George Foreman-esque and he’s so powerful. How he dismantled Anderson, you sat up and paid attention.
You try and create some sort of AI image of him against Usyk, him against Fury, him against AJ, him against Dubois – the names that are in the top ten and talked about by the public – and you actually see him giving them hellfire, if not knocking them out.
If the gym rumours are to be believed, none of these people have denied it. They’ve not confirmed or denied it. So it makes you think there might be more truth in this.”
Bakole has claimed to have stopped both Dubois and Usyk in sparring sessions and hurt ‘AJ’. Whilst he wants a world title shot, he is first likely to end up in with one of the other contenders mentioned above.
