Martin Bakole criticizes Joshua: “You should be ashamed!”

Heavyweight contender Martin Bakole called out Anthony Joshua on X, telling him he wanted to knock him out and taking offense that AJ predicted Efe Ajagba would beat him.

Joshua’s priorities in 2025

Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) has his full plate ahead of him in 2025 and is expected to fight Tyson Fury twice this year. If AJ gets through those two fights with wins, he might be interested in fighting Bakole if he has a title.

Apart from that, it is unlikely that he and his promoter, Eddie Hearn, will want to accept the risky fight against Bakole, who is like another. sonny ribbon with the power it generates with short blows. He doesn’t need to finish his shots to land tough knockout blows, making him a poor choice for Joshua Chin.

#3 IBF Bakole (21-1m 16 KOs) will fight #5 Efe Ajagba (20-1, 14 KOs) next in an IBF title eliminator to determine a mandatory challenger for champion Daniel Dubois. Bakole, 31, is coming off a fifth-round knockout of America’s top heavyweight prospect, Jared Anderson, on August 3 in Los Angeles.

You can never say never, but it’s unlikely that AJ and Hearn will ever decide to fight Bakole because he’s not right for them in every way. Joshua is more focused on Fury’s two fights in 2025 and avenging his humiliating fifth-round knockout loss to Daniel Dubois on September 21. That was the cruelest cut of all for Anthony, as he was knocked out in front of a crowd of more than 90,000 fans at Wembley Stadium in London.

“Hello Anthony Joshua, this video is for you. I called you, I wanted to knock you out and now you say Ajagba is going to beat me. What a shame. How many times did I call you? How many times did I ask you to fight in Africa? You should be ashamed of yourself,” said Martin Bakole in X.

“I want to fight you. Look at Daniel Dubois: I broke his nose twice (in sparring) and he knocked you out. I’ll knock you out in the first round. Are you talking about Ajagba? “Ajagba is a baby, wait until you see how I am going to knock him out.”

😡 for you @anthonyjoshua 👊🇨🇩 pic.twitter.com/tRXfkDfI0E

– Martin Bakole (@MartinBakole01) January 6, 2025