The heavyweight clash between Tony Yoka and Martin Bakolie has been rearranged for May 14 in Paris.
Originally the fight had been scheduled for January 15. However, the French government placed a cap of 2,000 people attending indoor events, due to the spread of the Omicron variant, forcing the fight to be postponed. The limit on crowd sizes was lifted on February 2.
Yoka, and his French promoters AllStar Boxing decided to move on and take up an opportunity to face former amateur rival Filip Hrgovic in an IBF final eliminator. However, they were already contracted to fight Bakolie whose team objected to the bout.
In the same week the governing body then issued a letter to Yoka’s team informing them they could not fight Hrgovic.
Yoka (11-0, 9 KOs) versus Bakolie (17-1, 13 KOs) will take place at the Accor Arena in Paris.