To hear him tell it, Martin Bakole is the most avoided man in boxing.
And he could be right.
The 31-year-old heavyweight from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who boxes out of Scotland, has mixed it with some of the best big men on the planet in the gym and says none of them are keen to face him in a real fight.
“I don’t lie, I don’t like to lie,” said Bakole 20-1 (15) to talkSPORT. “I always tell the truth. If you watch BOXXER’s video you will see.
“I was live on Sky Sports and Oleksandr Usyk’s manager came behind me and said ‘this guy is going to be world champion tomorrow’ because he knows, who I am, he was in the gym when I gave Usyk a hard time.
“Usyk never even touched me, I smashed him and knocked him out. I knocked him out with a body shot.
“I was getting out of the ring and they said he will need one week to recover.
“People are telling me not to talk about sparring but people forget I’m from Africa and it’s very hard for me to sell tickets so I need to sell myself.
“This is the reason why I accepted to spar with these guys because after I spar with them, I give them a hard time, people talk about me and they get to know about me.
“I gave them all a hard time. I stopped Daniel Dubois twice, stopped Joe Joyce and [Anthony] Joshua. Oh, that was a big one, he was hurt that day.”
Bakole will face American heavyweight hopeful Jared Anderson 17-0 (15) at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles, California on August 3.
Victory for the WBA number one contender will consolidate his credentials and give him a mandate to challenge world champion Oleksandr Usyk 22-0 (14).
Bakole is predicting a knockout victory over Anderson.
“It is 100 per cent going to happen. That is what I’m working hard to do. So that is what I have to do in America because I’m going fighting in America,” Bakole told the Toe2Toe podcast.
“I have to knock him out. I will, 100 per cent, believe me. I will push myself and do everything in my power to stop him.
“I have to do the business. That is the Martin Bakole mentality. Always go to win.
“He never fought someone at my level this is a big test. He’s got a champion’s mentality. I like that. I’m looking forward to see what he’s going to bring in the ring.”
He added: “Everyone is avoiding me, especially people I’ve been sparring with. The reason they’re avoiding me is I can come, I can punch back, I’m tough and I have championship mentality. I don’t give up easily.
“I went to Poland and knocked out Mariusz Wach, no one knocked him out like that before. I went to Paris and beat up Tony Yoka. I went to Saudi Arabia and stopped Takam – so everyone can see.
“I’m ready to take over.”
