Anybody else remain flat-out... unpersuaded? I was honestly never enthralled with him even in the amateurs. Can't really put my finger on it, but I just don't see it with him. Anytime people hype Yoka up it raises my hackles and gives me the same déjà vu gut instinct as when I reacted to people hyping up young unbeaten Victor Ortiz, and later young unbeaten Felix Verdejo. Same feeling I've been getting ever since Devin Haney appeared on the scene (remains to be seen whether my cynicism toward Haney & Yoka is vindicated as was that about Ortiz and Verdejo, but the point is that my feelings on them are identical). Yoka simply...isn't anything, by my reckoning. Big, quick, athletic - sure...but it all has to mean something, has to have some element at its core around which an identity can be said to coalesce, and he just...doesn't have one. That doesn't mean he's a jack of all trades and "kinda good" at everything. He's okay at some things, and that's all. Taken in sum, Yoka feels...empty. A package that arrived on time but from which the Amazon warehouse employee forgot to stuff a few of the ordered items. He fought a total of five times in his first year since making the jump (generously extending the freshman year to a few weeks past the strict twelve-month boundary) - which is all well and fine, by any prospect's standards, let alone Olympic gold medalists'. Since his one professional step up, however, against Dave Allen, he is languishing on the shelf for over eleven months and counting. He is slotted in for a July return, which means he will have frittered away 13 months of his prime. More troubling still, he is recently signed with James Prince, a move that augurs poorly for increased activity if we look to Prince's most famous prior assets, Floyd Mayweather Jr. (prior to linking up with Al Haymon) and then Andre Ward. Putting oneself in such elite company - in support of which this move would seem to be making a statement - is a bold, and IMO unearned move by Yoka. As if he weren't already under my "dislike" column, he is working under Virgil "Creepy Tinted-Windowed Ice Cream Truck Driver" Hunter. In for a penny, with Hunter as his coach and Prince as his advisor he opted for Richard "Snake In The Grass" Schaeffer as his promoter. To say nothing of the whispers of drug cheating in his past... I am not the only person with antipathy toward him. After extending the figurative olive branch to Dave Allen, he found it smacked ungraciously from his palm in a most hilariously undignified manner: This content is protected This content is protected Yoka vs. Allen, for anyone that hasn't seen it: This content is protected The White Rhino was horrifically out-of-shape and came in with no game plan save to make it a pub brawl, and Yoka (while probably bagging all but a round or two, and ultimately securing the stoppage - and not a great one, either; Allen despite being gassed and taking loads of shots was lucid and never close to going down - with only a couple of minutes to spare) really failed to distinguish himself or outclass Allen the way you'd expect somebody of his amateur pedigree and tidal wave of hype to do.
If he smashes Price and ends up landing a rematch with Yoka, then comes in under 240lbs, it wouldn't surprise me if a fit & motivated Allen were indeed the one to expose him.
Oh yeah - and he shouldn't even have an Olympic gold medal. (more so, in fact, than Anthony Joshua or Zou Shiming oughtn't have theirs)
Yoka is a KO waiting to happen. Eventually someone is going to punch right through him. Look at what happened to Simon Kean a few months ago. Exposed at Canadian level. While Yoka is is better than Kean who is too much of a body builder(ironically has a win over Yoka in the amateurs) Yoka gives me the same feeling of vulnerability. Especially with all of the good prospects coming through. Won't be long before he gets exposed I think as Yoka and his team in all fairness are ambitious and don't want to go the tomato can crushing route for several years.
Speaking of Price.. If the motivated balls to the wall version who threw down against Povetkin showed up and fought Yoka... Would you tip him to do the deed of exposing Yoka himself? He would certainly be capable of doing so for the first 5 rounds.
I keep getting Yoka mixed up with Anthony Yarde and forgetting which is the French heavyweight and which is the British light heavy. Aside from nationality and weight class they are the SAME person as far as I'm concerned. And both total hype jobs/kayos waiting to happen.
