There has long been speculation that a weakness of Oleksandr Usyk‘s – perhaps his only one – is shots to the body, and one heavyweight claims to have put him down with such a punch in sparring.
What is clear is that Usyk has never been stopped in the professional ring. He has never even been down, and very seldom has he ever even looked to be hurt.
The closest he has come was during a defence of his unified world heavyweight titles against Daniel Dubois in August 2023. ‘DDD’ landed what was ruled to be a low blow on the Ukrainian and he took the fully allowed time to recover after sitting on the canvas.
He rallied and went on to stop Dubois in the ninth round, and then just under a year later in May 2024 he became the undisputed heavyweight champion by beating Tyson Fury on points and relieving him of his WBC belt.
As he did after beating Anthony Joshua years prior, former undisputed cruiserweight king Usyk went straight into a rematch and beat Fury once again on points over 12 rounds to cement himself at the top of the pound-for-pound list and stake his claim as one of the greatest heavyweights of all time.
During all of this, heavyweight contender Martin Bakole has always maintained that he had Usyk down in the gym, ‘smashed and knocked out’ so badly that he ‘needed one week to recover.’
However, speaking to Boxing King Media, Usyk’s manager Alex Krassyuk said he did not see that happen in the sparring sessions.
“I did see Martin Bakole sparring. There are some stories which Martin used to say he stopped Usyk which I’ve never seen but I remember myself assisting Martin in the corner giving him water, seconding him in some of the sparring. I was surprised when I came, the ring was very small, four by four meters, extremely small, and when Martin was fighting I admired his skills.”
Asked if his charge would consider fighting Bakole in the professional ring, Krassyuk said that Usyk’s only motivation is likely to become undisputed again, thus only facing current champions. He did, however, state that the Congolese-born heavyweight will hold that status in the future.
“After Usyk is retired, Martin Bakole will be the king of the division.”
Bakole – who also claims to have seriously hurt Joshua in sparring and says he stopped Dubois – is next out against Efe Agagbe in an IBF title eliminator which could lead to a shot at the winner of Dubois’ world title defence versus Joseph Parker later this month.
