Joshua's been inactive since September 2024 when Dubois sent him to the canvas four or five times and knocked him stiff in the 5th. When Joshua returns to the ring I imagine he'll be 2 years removed from his last win. His best win on paper in the last 7 years is his UD over a 284 lbs Ruiz in a big Saudi ring. Joshua will be 36. Bakole performed poorly in his last two fights, turning up obese against Parker, on 2 days notice, jetlagged and got bombed out in 2. He came in slightly less obese 10 weeks later against Ajagba last May and was fortunate to scrape a 10 round draw. He'd previously been stopped in 2018 by Hunter, who he's avoided ever since. However, Bakole has valuable experience brutally derailing A-side hypejobs in their backyards: undefeated Yoka and undefeated Anderson. Whereas Joshua has never fought in his homeland of Nigeria before and would likely be feeling the pressure.
Both are trash in my opinion, but I would still give Bakole a slight advantage in a potentially boring fight...
AJ is way too quick and powerful for Bakole. Also, Bakole just isn't that good, he was hyped up to a be a boogyman just by beating a very faded Takam and a prospect in Anderson. A lot of people in fact, bought a hype job in Bakole. Triangles theories are flawed yes, but I'm confident that if Parker can knock out Bakole inside two - then AJ can't do much worse. AJ mid rounds KO.
We don't know how much Joshua has left, but if he has much he should be able to beat Bakole. If Bakole turns up in shape though, then I may reassess, but the chances of that seem slim.
Have to favor Bakole now. Joshua has been mentally blown out since 2019 (maybe 2017 when Klitschko knocked him down?). I always back the currently mentally resilient fighter, and not some theoretical version of a fighter. We just saw Bakole in tough in a war against a top 10 guy. We saw Joshua get outboxed, outfought, and completely destroyed over a year ago with no fight scheduled since.
