Tony Yoka will not face Carlos Takam on January 15 at the AccorHotels Arena (ex-Bercy) in Paris.
According to information from the Team that we are able to confirm, Carlos Takam suffers from the wrist.
He will be replaced by the Congolese Martin Bakole.
January 15 ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/x0d553dqfZ
- Tony YOKA (@TonyYoka) November 16, 2021
This is necessarily bad news because the duel between the two best French heavyweights of the moment and of recent years was salivating.
But as boxers, even heavyweights can be fragile, Carlos Takam was injured in training and has a sore left wrist.
Perhaps he will be restored by January 15, but he cannot prepare.
At 40, this injury is first a setback in the career of the valiant former opponent of Anthony Joshua in 2017. It is also likely that the Yoka - Takam fight can never be done.
Because time is not on Takam's favor.
To replace him, the Yoka clan and its manager Jérôme Abiteboul had to find an urgent solution.
This solution is called Martin Bakole.
He is Congolese and at 28 years old.
He was the one originally envisioned for this 12th Yoka fight before the Takam Trail took shape.
If he is not very well known, Bakole is a solid warrior who has 17 fights for a loss against the American Michael Hunter.
Residing in England, he was also often the sparring partner of the former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua who himself visited Tony Yoka in his training camp in San Francisco last November.
Unlike Takam, world n ° 21, Martin Bakole is better classified than Tony Yoka in the world heavyweight ranking: the Congolese is n ° 18 when the Olympic champion of Rio is in 20th place.
