Ben Shalom has revealed he received an interesting message from Oleksandr Usyk’s promoter, Alex Krassyuk, after Martin Bakole’s impressive win over Ihor Shevadzutskyi in Poland this past weekend.
Bakole took just three rounds to dispatch of the man known as ‘Hulk’, who was previously undefeated and represented Ukraine at the World Series of Boxing as an amateur.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the fight, Shalom claimed Krassyuk had got in contact to say that Bakole would defeat former world champions Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder.
“Alex Krassyuk just messaged me after that saying Martin Bakole beats Anthony Joshua and Martin Bakole beats Wilder and I think everyone in boxing knows how good this guy is.”
“You never know how a fighter is going to come back when he has been out of the ring for a year but it was business as usual. It showed how powerful he is.”
“Now we can move on with Martin Bakole, he wants the big fights and big nights, that’s why he’s come to us.”
The WBA inexplicably gave Wilder their #1 ranking spot earlier this year and moved Bakole down to #2, despite the fact ‘The Bronze Bomber’ has not fought since his one round blow out of Robert Helenius back in October.
With WBA regular champion Daniel Dubois set to face ‘Super’ champion Oleksandr Usyk this summer, Shalom has called for either a final eliminator or interim title fight to be ordered between Wilder and Bakole.
Originally from Congo but now based in Scotland, Bakole scored a career best win over Tony Yoka in Paris last May, however this was followed by almost a year’s inactivity.
It was announced in February that he had signed a promotional agreement with Sky Sports and Boxxer.