Martin Bakole says it’s typically one-way traffic between him and Moses Itauma – that he doesn’t take aim at Itauma, even while the younger heavyweight speaks critically about Bakole.
The 33-year-old Bakole, who lives in Scotland, was in attendance in Glasgow on Saturday for Itauma’s two-round clobbering of Mike Balogun on the undercard of Josh Taylor’s loss to Ekow Essuman. And when asked about Itauma’s performance, Bakole didn’t mince words.
“He done well – but against someone who’s a bum,” . “They have to give him a good test […] he need to fight a good quality people and try to test himself if he want to be a world champion tomorrow.”
The 20-year-old Itauma is now 12-0 (10 KOs). Balogun, who came in with a record of 21-1 (16 KOs), is an unranked 41-year-old who hadn’t fought in 14 months and had failed to make it past the second round against former cruiserweight titleholder Murat Gassiev in 2023.
Bakole, 21-2-1 (16 KOs), was previously described as the heavyweight division’s boogeyman after taking out Jared Anderson last August. But then Bakole came in extremely overweight and on extremely late notice against Joseph Parker in February and was stopped in two rounds. Most recently, Bakole fought Efe Ajagba to a draw on the May 3 undercard of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez-William Scull.
Itauma, , spoke of Bakole’s “trash” performance against Ajagba and how a potential meeting with Bakole doesn’t make as much sense anymore.
Those words didn’t seem to bother Bakole.
“He speak his mind and I never mention his name,” Bakole said. “I’m thinking about getting a big fight. I’m talking about top five, six. I don’t know if he’s a top 10 or top 20, but he’s a boxer, he’s a heavyweight. He’s doing what he’s doing and he’s speaking his mind. But it’s his opinion. That’s his opinion, and I respect that.”
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter. David’s book, “,” is available on Amazon.