Joseph Parker understood the assignment.
On Saturday night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the perennial title contender made quick work of late-replacement Martin Bakole. Parker scored a second-round TKO victory after landing a titanic overhand right that landed on the top of Bakole’s head.
The huge Congolese heavyweight who weighed in at 315 pounds on Friday stumbled and ultimately went down. Bakole got to his feet, but he looked compromised. He immediately looked to his corner, and his trainer hopped on the apron to stop the fight.
Here is a look at the finish:
It may have looked like a premature stoppage on the surface, but when you consider everything—it makes sense. Bakole stepped in on just two days’ notice to replace IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois, who fell ill during fight week.
Is Bakole a big man? Yes, but with a full camp, there is no chance he comes in that much over 315 pounds. Because of the situation, his corner clearly chose to let their big, promising, and relatively young heavyweight live to fight another day.
Bakole had a fight set in May against Efe Ajagba. Perhaps Bakole’s team didn’t want to let their fighter take unnecessary punishment in a bout that would cost them a second fight and payday.
Some critics may ask, ‘why take the fight at all?’ That’s a fair question, but boxing is a business as much as it is a sport. Every fight a fighter decides to take is a business decision—one way or another.
As for Parker, he comes out looking even better. He could have refused to fight Bakole when Dubois pulled out. The fight against Dubois was going to be a title fight. Had Parker lost to Bakole, the title opportunity would have gone out the window.
Still, he took the risk and passed the test with flying colors.
At this point, anything short of a title shot simply doesn’t make much sense for Parker. A fight against Dubois would be most reasonable. However, Parker now has the best case to be Oleksandr Usyk’s next opponent.
Usyk is currently the WBO, WBA and WBC heavyweight champion and fresh off back-to-back wins over Tyson Fury. With Fury having retired, the options at heavyweight have decreased.
Parker could renew acquaintances with Anthony Joshua. That fight would be a pretty big one in the United Kingdom—which is the case with all of AJ’s fights. Joshua has already faced and defeated Parker by a wide unanimous decision back in 2018. Seven years later, has something changed?
It’s possible.
Parker has never looked better than the version we’ve seen in his KO over Bakole as well as wins over Zhilei Zhang and Deontay Wilder in the past 14 months. You could argue no heavyweight is on a more impressive stretch over the same timeframe.
It’ll be interesting to see where the pieces fit together over the next several weeks.
Here is a look at all of the results from the Beterbiev-Bivol 2 card.
- Callum Smith def. Joshua Buatsi via unanimous decision
- Agit Kabayel def. Zhilei Zhang via sixth-round KO
- Vergil Ortiz Jr def. Israil Madrimov via unanimous decision (117-111, 115-113)
- Carlos Adames vs. Hamzah Sheeraz – split draw
- Shakur Stevenson def. Josh Padley via ninth-round TKO
- Joseph Parker def. Martin Bakole via second-round TKO
