The heavyweight division is one that is set to be blown wide open in 2025, with the victor of the rematch between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury expected to fragment the unified heavyweight crown during the aftermath. As a result, the alternate heavyweight contenders are battling it out for favourable positions in the rankings, but there is one man who is poised better than any.
Oleksandr Usyk dropped the IBF world title shortly after his legendary undisputed title win against ‘The Gypsy King’ back in May and it was Daniel Dubois who was positioned as the IBF interim champion at the time, which saw him upgraded to full world champion.
A few months later, Anthony Joshua attempted to dethrone the seemingly vulnerable and unproven world champion at Wembley Stadium but was instead halted by his fellow Briton in an authoritative display from ‘Triple D’.
Now there are a plethora of contenders hoping to emulate the success of Dubois and position themselves atop the WBC, WBA and WBO rankings in hopes of further vacant belts.
At present, Martin Bakole sits at the top of the WBA ratings, whilst Joseph Parker holds the WBO interim title and Agit Kabayel is positioned at #2 (behind Fury) with the WBC.
Meanwhile, Bakole was expected to collide with Agit Kabayel in an IBF final eliminator, to decide who would become Daniel Dubois’ first mandatory challenger, until the latter dramatically pulled out of purse bids yesterday.
Now, Bakole’s trainer Billy Nelson has revealed that Bakole will be upgraded from #4 in the IBF ratings to the top of the pile, leaving him as the number one contender in two of the four sanctioning bodies.
Basically @MartinBakole01 is now No1 in the IBF & WBA rankings
— Billy Nelson (@L2Box1) November 15, 2024
“Basically, Martin Bakole is now No1 in the IBF & WBA ratings.”
Providing Bakole avoids defeat in a possible contest against Zhilei Zhang, the Congolese contender will be almost guaranteed a world title shot in 2025, whether that be against Dubois for the IBF strap or an unnamed opponent for a potentially vacant WBA title remains to be seen.
Currently, Mahmoud Charr holds the WBA (Regular) heavyweight title and could be aligned as an opponent for a vacant WBA marble, whilst Michael Hunter, the only man to have defeated Bakole, is rated as the world #3 with the sanctioning body.
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