Not long to go now until “The Last Crescendo” and the stacked fight card that had been dubbed “The Card of the Century” no less. And what a fight week it really has been, with so much happening, with so much to take in – with so much to write about – and this before the opening fight has even got underway.
We had the Floyd Schofield incident, the scheduled challenger of lightweight champ Shakur Stevenson falling ill (and being deliberately “poisoned” according to his father), and then, just hours later, we had the Daniel Dubois saga.
Dubois also fell ill, suffering from a virus as we later learned, and “DDD” was out of his fight with Joe Parker. Shakur, 22-0(10) got a late replacement foe in the form of electrician/boxer Josh Padley, who is 15-0(4) and a huge underdog going into the fight of his career. While we all know heavyweight danger man Martin Bakole stepped in at even shorter notice to fight Parker in what will be a WBO interim title fight.
Bakole had around 48 hours notice, he was not in training (or some people say he actually was), and he jumped on a plane for an 11-hour flight to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Missing the official weigh-in, Bakole, 21-1(16) had to weigh-in later, this after touching down in Riyadh. And what a hefty poundage Bakole tipped-in at – to the tune of 310 pounds. This, it goes without saying, is a career-high for Bakole. Interestingly, Parker, 35-3(23) also scaled a career-heaviest weight, this being 267 pounds.
So, what the heck happens in this, arguably the most interesting, some might say fascinating fight on the card? Put it this way, the odds seem stacked against big guy Bakole and in a big way. The Congolese giant will have possible jet-lag and a serious lack of acclimation time to deal with, Bakole will be carrying all that weight (his best fighting weight is around 284, this the weight he carried when smashing Jared Anderson to defeat last time out), and Bakole will possibly be fighting without having had any real camp to speak of.
But Bakole is so dangerous, so strong, so heavy-handed, and so determined that he just might pull it off and defeat Parker. And if he can do it, well, what a hero Bakole would be. And what a series of big fights he would be able to look forward to down the road. From a possible rematch with Parker, to a massive fight with Oleksandr Usyk, Bakole has it all to fight for today. As does Parker. Both men deserve enormous credit for saving a large chunk of the show after Dubois fell sick.
Now, in what just might prove to be the most explosive fight we see today, may the best man win.
