Martin Bakole didn’t just take Daniel Dubois’ spot on Saturday’s boxing mega-card, he took his gloves, too.
In a curious sight, Bakole was spotted wearing Dubois’ black Fly-branded gloves with “DDD” written across them in his fight with Joseph Parker for the WBO interim heavyweight title at the Anb Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Parker was initially scheduled to challenge IBF heavyweight champion Dubois as the co-main event to Saturday’s Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol rematch, however Dubois was forced to withdraw from the fight with the New Zealander on Thursday due to illness. Riyadh Season, the promotional entity operated by Turki Alalshikh and Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, managed to get Bakole to agree to step in on 48 hours’ notice and replace Dubois in a remarkable save for the show.
Bakole missed Friday’s official weigh-in because he was still on a 3,800-mile flight from the Democratic Republic of Congo. He arrived in Riyadh less than 24 hours before he was scheduled to fight.
Bakole unofficially weighed in on Saturday morning at 310 pounds, 25.5 pounds heavier than when he knocked out Jared Anderson in the fifth round in Los Angeles this past August. The heavyweight contender admitted in social media posts that he wasn’t in training camp when he received the call and was unprepared for his fight with Parker, though he still expressed confidence in his chances at victory.
There wasn’t enough time for Bakole to have his own pair of gloves approved by the British Boxing Board of Control, which officiated the event, so he was forced to wear Dubois’ gloves with “DDD” visible below the Fly logo on the gloves.
When Bakole entered the ring, he was clearly out of shape and static. Parker floored Bakole with a right-hand temple shot in the second round, and Bakole was pulled out by trainer Billy Nelson after the knockdown.
Nelson told Ring Magazine that Bakole will still go ahead with his planned May 2 fight against Efe Ajagba in New York on the Ryan Garcia vs. Rolando Romero undercard, but the bout would no longer be an IBF eliminator. Fighters cannot take an interim fight after being ordered for an IBF eliminator, so when Bakole agreed to face Parker, he was simultaneously withdrawn from the IBF eliminator with Ajagba.
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