Returning at the end of the week to his victory of May 14 against Tony Yoka, Martin Bakole ensures that he spared the Frenchman. “I didn’t want to finish it,” said the Congolese, adding that a success on points suited him very well.
Did Bakole spare Tony Yoka? On May 14 at the AccorArena in Bercy, the Frenchman, then still undefeated (eleven victories in eleven fights), lost on points (unanimously of the three judges 96-92, 95-93, 94-94 ) against the Congolese. The first defeat since his visit to the professionals for “the Artist”, who had also experienced a very complicated evening against the king of the province of Kananga. We learn today that she could have been tougher still. According to Bakole, he indeed kept it under his belt that evening. More exactly, the Congolese, having immediately understood that Yoka would not pose a problem for him and knowing that his opponent was boxing in front of his children, present, at the edge of the ring, had decided, to hear him, not to do more to him. worse than he was already doing it, in the same way, still according to his words, that he had preferred to let him go to the end of the fight. Bakole felt that winning on points against the Olympic champion in Rio suited him very well.
Bakole: “Nothing to do with what he thought he was”
“I didn’t want to finish it. I saw his kids at ringside. A victory on points was enough”, assures in The team the winner, swearing that if he had wanted to knock out the native of Chanteloup-les-Vignes, he could have done it easily. Moreover, the Congolese, returned to the fight seven months later in the columns of the daily, admits that he expected to face him on May 14 a boxer of a completely different caliber, especially after what he had heard Yoka say of himself. “In the ring, in front of me, he was lost, remembers the one whose big brother also boxing professionally. What he showed had nothing to do with what he thought he was. For Bakole, this Yoka can hope for nothing more than to succeed in a modest career, but no more. “He will have to progress a lot to reach the heights”. The day before, his promoter Bob Arum and his trainer Virgil Hunter had already shared a similar feeling.
