The heavyweight division brings excitement to boxing, mainly when they deliver big knockouts or stoppages. This is the case for 32-year-old Martin Bakole (21-1, 16 KOs), who shocked the world when he stopped the young, up-and-coming contender Jared Anderson (17-1, 15 KOs) in August. With Bakole thrusting himself onto the scene so impressively after his knockout victory, Eddie Hearn, sitting ringside, suggested he fight Zhilei “Big Bang” Zhang (27-2-1, 22 KOs) next. Even though Hearn doesn’t promote neither fighter, his suggestion caught fire on social media. It was then that Bakole would call out Zhang for them to fight next.
Earlier in the week, Bakole took to social media to send a message to Zhang. “I am in Congo right now, training hard for big Zhang, and I just heard that Zhang has said no to the fight and that he has forgotten his shoes,” Bakole said on Instagram. “Big Zhang, come and get your shoes man; stop running away! I know that your team is protecting you. They don’t want you to get knocked out so now I am focusing on Agit Kabayel.”
On Wednesday, the IBF ordered an eliminator between Bakole and Kabayel, which is being targeted for December. Although it appears that Bakole has a fight lined up, Zhang didn’t take too kindly to what Bakole said on social media and posted his own message.
“Although I was anticipating an offer to fight Bakole, my team has never received one. We learned that he possibly was going in a different direction, so we are moving to another opportunity, one that we have been working on for several months. Either way, this is an exciting time for heavyweight boxing, and I will have more news soon.”
After seeing Zhang’s post, FightsATW reached out to his advisor, Terry Lane, to get more clarity on the situation. “Bakole was out there saying we ‘turned down’ an offer [to fight him]; we never, ever received an offer,” said Lane. “We were/are working on something else, but we were told a while back that there was interest in making the Bakole fight, so we were waiting on that too, and then we saw he went in another direction. This happens in boxing, where wires get crossed. You have so many individuals between the fighters so who knows what actually happened, but no offer ever got to us. We just wanted to make that clear.”
When asked about Zhang’s opponent now that it won’t be Bakole, Lane could not get into those details just yet, but it appears that whoever it is, we will all find out soon enough. Maybe Zhang vs. Bakole not happening right now is a blessing in disguise, as if they meet next year, a title could be on the line. For now, both men are going their separate ways.
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