His Excellency Turki Alalshikh wants to start a heavyweight fight between the contenders Martin Bakole and Zhilei Zhang for China or Africa.
Bakole’s title shot: delayed or denied?
Bakole (21-1, 16 KOs) does not need to fight 41-year-old Zhang (27-2-1, 22 KOs) to get a title shot against the winner of the December 21 rematch between Tyson Fury, WBA . , WBC, and WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk. Martin deserves a title shot now and shouldn’t wait.
From a business standpoint, it makes sense to keep the Fury-Usyk 2 winner away from dangerous punchers like Bakole and Zhang, because those guys hit too hard, and they could make the money fight against Anthony Joshua that awaits. Still, if boxing is a sport, Bakole or Zhang should get their chance.
Bakole has reportedly gotten the better of Usyk in sparring, and you can only imagine what he would do against him, Fury or Joshua with his George Foreman-esque power.
With Bakole’s fourth-round knockout win over Jared Anderson on August 3rd, he’s ready to fight for a world title now, and he deserves to challenge the winner of Fury-Usyk 2 rather than go through another hoop jump to get his rightful shot. .
Mike Coppinger reports that Turki the Bakole vs. Zhang battle for China or Africa next wants to put together. He does not say if the winner will get an immediate title shot or if they will have to fight another match against someone else.
Zhang is coming off a 5th round knockout win over 38-year-old former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder on June 1st in Riyadh. Wilder entered the contest losing three of his last four fights.
The allure of China
“I would love to fight big Zhang in December in China,” Bakole said Sky Sports Boxing. “I heard His Excellency wanted to make the fight in China, so that’s the fight I’m looking for. If that happens, I will be so happy.”
The money would be good for Bakole and Zhang for a fight in China, and it would likely draw a large stadium crowd if they staged it in Beijing, which has a population of 22 million.
It’s hard to imagine with so many people. With the right ads, Bakole vs. Zhang massively be in Beijing. I was recently in Tokyo, Japan, and there were enormous amounts of people. The city has 13 million people, but nothing compared to Beijing. You can only imagine the crowd that would turn out to watch Zhang vs. Bakole to watch.
