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Daniel Dubois out of Joseph Parker fight, with exciting replacement found
Giant heavyweight Martin Bakole will now face Joseph Parker on Saturday night, replacing IBF world champion Daniel Dubois.
Parker was due to take on Dubois in the co-main event of Riyadh Season's The Last Crescendo card, but Dubois was forced to withdraw due to illness on Thursday night.
Hours after that news broke, Bakole looks to be the man selected to step in to take on the New Zealander.
Bakole (21-1, 16 KOs) was last in action in August, when he stopped Jared Anderson in the fifth round of their bout in Los Angeles. The 31-year-old has won 10 straight fights after suffering the lone defeat of his career in 2018.
Parker (35-3, 23 KOs) is a former WBO heavyweight champion who currently holds that organisation's interim title. The 33-year-old is coming off impressive victories against Deontay Wilder and Zhilei Zhang in his two most recent fights.
Bakole has been itching for a fight on the biggest stage for years, become frustrated in recent times that potential contenders have seemingly been 'ducking him' due to what he sees as their fear of his explosive power.
It even lead to the Congolese fighter, who now lives and trains in Scotland, to call out Oleksandr Usyk, saying: “I would love to fight Oleksandr Usyk for unification.”
“That’s a beautiful fight because I would knock him out, nice and cool. Nobody would stand before me without going down.”
That could now become a future bout, if Bakole takes his out-of-the-blue opportunity against Parker and defeats the former WBO world champions.
- Read next | Who is Martin Bakole?
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