‘Number One Heavyweight In The World’ Has Now ‘Signed’ To Fight Anthony Joshua: “It’s Done”
Anthony Joshua is likely to fight twice this year as he looks to bounce back from a fourth career loss.
‘Anthony Joshua’s latest defeat came at the hands of Daniel Dubois as he attempted to become a three-time world heavyweight champion
A bad first round for Joshua saw him knocked down before the bell and fail to properly recover fully thereafter. Just as he was beginning to get a foothold in the fight during the fifth round, he was caught again and put down, this time out for the count.
The Brit has rebuilt well after previous losses. His first came to Andy Ruiz in 2019 and in the immediate rematch six months later he won wide on the cards. After two back-to-back defeats to Oleksandr Usyk, the former Olympic Gold Medalist then put together four wins against Jermaine Franklin, Robert Helenius, Otto Wallin and Francis Ngannou before that fight with Dubuis derailed his progress once more.
It is now being reported by talkSPORT that Joshua will take on Martin Bakole, the division’s ‘most avoided heavyweight,’ later this year in Africa.
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His promoter, Ben Shalom, was ringside at the weekend and revealed the news.
“The promoter of Martin Bakole, that’s what I want to be known as. The number one heavyweight in the world. It’s done. I’m hearing he’s signed [to fight Joshua] and we’re off to the Congo.”
Joshua’s team are yet to respond to the statement. His promoter Eddie Hearn has said the Bakole fight is on the table but that the immediate target is the winner on Dubois’ title defence against Joseph Parker later this month.
He had hoped to go into an epic fight with fellow British rival Tyson Fury but Fury’s retirement in January, following his own back-to-back defeats to Usyk, put a halt on that.
Bakole, who is scheduled to fight Efe Ajagba next in a final eliminator for the IBF’s mandatory position, has sparred many of the top heavyweights, including Joshua and Fury, but so far the best names on his record in the ring are Carlos Takam and Jared Anderson, both of whom he stopped. He has one defeat to Michael Hunter.
