Bakole Targets The Joshua Fight After Their Sparring – ‘He Was Hurt That Day’

Martin Bakole is targeting a fight with Anthony Joshua next year. 

Bakole secured the biggest win of his career when he stopped Jared Anderson to give the latter the first defeat of his career this year. It was a dominant performance, as he dropped Anderson several times to beat one of the division’s biggest prospects. Bakole used his size and power to subdue Anderson, making him a threat to the heavyweight divison. That took his record to 21-1, with 16 wins by knockout.

His only defeat came against Michael Hunter in 2018 when the American knocked him out. Since then, he has won ten on the bounce. Eight of those wins have been by stoppage. Bakole has previously said that he sparred with Joshua and claimed he dominated the Brit.

While sparring must be taken with a pinch of salt since fighters often work on certain things, that gave Bakole a lot of confidence. He has accused Joshua’s team of avoiding him since then. But if he continues to win, Bakole wants the AJ fight. 

Bakole’s Aims

 “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 said 

“Anthony Joshua – knockout, round four or five … This year I’m coming to knock them out. Stop them or punish them,” Bakole added 

Nevertheless, the fight makes no sense for Joshua. He will box Daniel Dubois on September 21 for the latter’s IBF Heavyweight Title. A win makes him a three-time world champion and in line to fight the winner of the Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk rematch for undisputed. Joshua recently said he has two years left in the sport before he retires. Should he become undisputed, he may retire.

Bakole’s Options

Alternatively, he could pursue fights that would make the most money. There are bigger names than Bakole with less risk, making it an unlikely match-up. Meanwhile, Bakole has several other boxers in the division he could arguably face before earning a Joshua fight.

Bouts with Deontay Wilder, Joseph Parker, and Zhilea Zhang are just some of the other boxers in the division. However, Bakole is an avoided fighter. He offers a high risk with little reward since he has no belts. Based on his account of sparring with Joshua, it may be easy to see why. 

“I didn’t just spar them [Joshua and Dubois], I smashed them. I destroyed them in the gym. That’s the reason why they don’t want to fight me. That’s a good fight, a 50-50 for me, they don’t have a boxing brain but they are strong and can box but no boxing brain like Martin Bakole. Good luck to both but I would smash them,” Bakole stated