Reigning IBF heavyweight world champion Daniel Dubois is preparing for his biggest fight to date as he gears up for a first defence against two-time champion and domestic rival Anthony Joshua. However, two months out from that meeting, an alternative rival in the division has opened up on a sparring session with ‘Triple D’ and revealed that he twice broke the nose of the in-form Briton.
Daniel Dubois was tasked with a near-impossible task when he challenged Oleksandr Usyk for the unified heavyweight crown almost twelve months ago, but a spirited performance has appeared to give the 26-year-old a newfound confidence, regardless of the knockout defeat.
The experience of facing such an esteemed champion has clearly served Dubois well, bouncing back with consecutive career-best stoppage victories over Jarrell Miller and Filip Hrgovic – the last of which saw him claim the interim IBF strap which eventually resulted in Dubois being upgraded to full world champion status.
Meanwhile, Conoglese-born Martin Bakole has often declared that no British fighters are willing to face him as a result of his reputation as a sparring partner – previously claiming to have stopped Usyk and Joe Joyce. In an interview with iFL TV, Bakole revealed that he also twice broke the nose of the newly-crowned IBF champion, believing that to be one of many reasons why his opportunities have been restricted.
“Sometimes I feel bad talking about sparring because some stuff needs to just stay in the gym, but sometimes I have to because I have been living in the U.K. for 18 years now and none of these top guys in the U.K. want to fight me. I have been calling them out and nobody has come out and said ‘yes, I want to fight Martin Bakole’.
“They are scared because they know who Martin Bakole is in sparring, don’t judge me because I have to sell myself. In America, nobody knows who Martin Bakole is because I am in the U.K. and in the U.K. nobody wants to give me that big opportunity to sell myself out there, they know what I have been doing to them in sparring.
“That is the reason why me and my coach come out and tell the stories of why they are avoiding me because if they say yes to fighting me, then I would not talk about sparring and that would stay in the gym.
“I broke his [Dubois’] nose twice and stopped him. That is not a lie because he will never come out and say ‘no, you are lying’, Joe Joyce is the same.”
Bakole returns to action on Saturday night against highly-rated American contender Jared Anderson as a part of the Israil Madrimov-Terence Crawford undercard in Los Angeles, which can be watched via DAZN pay-per-view. As for Dubois, he goes toe-to-toe with ‘AJ’ on September 21st at Wembley Stadium in a third all-British heavyweight title contest in as many years.
Boxing Social is now on WhatsApp! Join our channel by clicking here and getting all the latest boxing news direct to your phone.