Seriously! Yoka's fragile glass mandible would've been shattered into a million pieces against Hrgovic. He dodged a brutal KO by facing the more limited Bakole.
Lots of good points there to illustrate out Yoka's limitations. If you drill down into Yoka's record, it makes for some interesting reading. The punchers he's faced are pretty limited (Johnny Rice, Dave Allen, Peter Milas). Rice and Allen gave him some trouble early but - consistent with their other performances - started to fade after a few rounds. Peter Milas got a bit overhyped on the basis of stopping Kevin Johnson - which really amounted to him having opened up a nasty cut on Kingpin. Milas' subsequent fights were not very impressive, so Yoka's stoppage of Milas (who fought like an uneducated, wildman) isn't all that much of an accomplishment. And in any case, none of those three guys have Bakole's power. He did fight Christian Hammer. That is definitely a fighter with good survival skills who has been known to make his opponents look bad (see his fight with Luis Ortiz a few years ago) - but he can't really be considered a dangerous puncher. Yoka has kind of gotten by on prancing around and picking apart tiring opponents. That obviously did not deter Bakole.
I think Bakole's gas tank is his big problem. We saw what happened to Bakole with Hunter, but Martin also faded against Kuzmin when the two fought. We don't know if the problem is a limitation of Martin or a training issue that can be rectified - but it's a bit worrying for a fighter who is only 28 years old. In truth, I think Bakole was actually tiring some after Round 7 last night - but Yoka didn't want any part of Martin by that stage.
I definitely think the "hot sauce" explained some of late-rounds prowess in earlier fights... ...but I'm not sure that made much of a difference last night. He got a taste of Bakole's power early and after that he simply didn't want to engage. You could see signs that Martin might have been tiring a little over the last three rounds - but Yoka still didn't want any part of him. II think Yoka needed "Heart Sauce" and not "Hot Sauce" for Bakole.
The judges were chosen especially for this fight. All the funds hit their bank accounts during the ring walks; they were on their phones checking their online accounts as can clearly be seen. Bakole beat Yoka from post to post all fight long. Broke his nose. Knocked him down twice. Beat him like an unwanted stepchild. A rational human being with at least one eye could not have given Yoka more than 1 round. They were worse scores than Canelo-Bivol. Calling it a draw was obcene.
The fact that Yoka has only been willing to take fights in France has been a huge red flag that he hasn't got much heart. Many opponents have stayed away fearing the game is rigged against them. After last night's scoring you can't say they were wrong to be worried! All credit to Bakole for being willing to take a chance in hostile territory.
He just isn't that good, at least nowhere near as good as I thought he was (which wasn't great, but better than the shower of shyte we saw against Bakole). Aside from his chin, which is Amir Khan esque, and his rudimentary leaky defence, he just doesn't have any ring generalship or ability to adapt throughout a fight. He's quick and has a bit of pop when he's not being pushed back (see Duhaupas fight) but against a man willing to walk him down he looked panicked and unable to bring the pace of the fight back to his level. He's also a hometown hero (zero now?) who relies on rigged scorecards to get the win, along with rampant juicing that's one step down from Jarrell Miller in how blatant it is. Plus he's arrogant and taunts lesser opponents in the ring. Really not a great combination to make me want to root for him in any capacity going forward. I'd love Joyce to get his revenge on him. Or the Makman to land a few uppercuts on his chin.
Yoka was simply never all that good to begin with; it was a matter of time until he was found out in the professional ranks.
Unfortunately, on Saturday, Yoka reminded me of another gold medalist, Tyrell Biggs. Maybe he can pull it together. Who knows. But, honestly, I couldn't help but be disappointed in Bakole. He had everything EVERYTHING going his way and practically stopped fighting. I haven't seen such a lack of killer instinct in a very long time. Yoka had no business finishing that fight. Bakole not only took his foot off the gas, he gave the hometown judges a window to become a factor. Bakole seems to have a classic case of Sparring Partner Syndrome. People were bragging about all the fighters he has sparred with. Maybe he should do less of that and fight more often against anyone. Hired hands tend to get into the habit of not wanting to show up their bosses. Bakole acted like a Yoka sparring partner who got scolded for going too rough on his employer. After five rounds or so, he just followed Yoka around and threw punches from too far away. Like he wanted to give Yoka a chance to regroup. That's what sparring partners who hurt their employers do. Weird performance. Dominant and then passive. No killer instinct at all. Classic sparring partner mentality. Bakole isn't going anywhere if he keeps that up.
I have been saying all along that something in him reminds me of Mark Breland. He is a wonderful and skilled offensive machine, long, lanky and powerful--until someone fights back!
It says a lot that the Olympic committee stripped AIBA of their rights to host the boxing at the Olympics after the terrible scoring in Rio. Yoka's gold medal clearly has a huge question mark over it, he should have never even made it to the final the Hrgovic decision was truly awful, far worse than the decision to Joyce in my opinion. Someone compared Yoka to Audley Harrison after the loss to Bakole but at least Harrison genuinely won his gold medal.
His chin wouldn't be that much of a problem if he had a decent defence, but he always gets caught with his chin up in the air and gets hurt. He has the size and the athleticism (speed and power) but nobody has been able to teach him proper footwork and defensive skills. Does anyone know at what age he started boxing? I can't imagine that a good coach wouldn't have been able to get a lot more out of a young guy with that combination of size, speed (hand and footspeed) and power. He's pretty much the HW version of Amir Khan and looks like someone taught him boxing in a way to get the most out of him quickly in the amateur ranks, but with zero regards when it comes to developing a guy who can actually make it as a pro. Kinda surprised that Virgil Hunter hasn't been able to teach him anything, but that shows again that building a fighter from then start and taking another fighter with more experience and eliminating his bad habits/weaknesses are two pretty different things.
He started boxing under his father's guidance at 6 and joined an actual club at 8. His father was a fighter himself and helped train him until the age of 16. I'm also surprised Hunter wasn't able to teach him anything. I thought his style of boxing would be a good fit, improve his defence and teach him how to clinch and manhandle opponents inside much like Ward used too so he could stifle a counter and smother a fighter on the inside where he's weak. But I never saw anything to suggest he learned anything from Hunter and even Khan who's an imbecile in terms of boxing IQ was able to pick up a few things early on before abandoning them. I wonder exactly how much time he spent with Hunter with Hunter in the US and Yoka based in France.
