Who takes it. Wardley is dangerous but I think he's too hittable. I still think Clarke won that fight but I'm ok with a draw. If Bakole hits as hard as they say his power should get him over the line in this. Who do you think takes it.
Wardley is very good but has two weaknesses. 1) He has poor defense 2) He would need to fight at least three times a year with quality boxers to gain experience. until his last two matches can be rated as difficult, before that he was just beating cans of tomatoes ... Bakole is also untested against good opponents, aside from Hunter, but in general he looks massive and strong, so it will be very hard for anyone to hurt him
Bakole isn't untested. He's fought Takam, Yoka, Kuzmin and Wach among others. Not the stuff killer resumes are made of, but solid enough compared to the average HW mixing it at or near the top.
yoka is very bad, wach and takam very old and kuzmin is canned tomatoes. When bakole challenges someone decent from the top 20, we can say how good he is... until then it's just hype
Takam is old but he's a solid gatekeeper who usually exposes guys who aren't that great. Bakole handled him fairly easily. I don't see too many people "hyping" Bakole. He is what he is, a big solid unit with heavy hands. He's in Ajagba/Joyce territory right now.
ok i agree with that but it is very important to tell yourself this: 1) his boxing technique is average and untested on top boxers 2) never fought under title pressure or in a fight for everything ... Joyce also looked like an absolute machine, and over the course of two bouts, first his weak defense and then his inability to win the fight for everything in the rematch with Zhang showed. Meanwhile, Zhang looked pretty average against Parker, and apparently isn't as good as many think
Bakole knocks him out comfortably. More skilled, more powerful and much bigger. Wardley way too hittable to survive.
I predicted Zhang beat Joyce and also that Parker beat Zhang. Zhang is probably the hardest puncher in the heavyweight division right now in my opinion, not the sort of fighter you want to try and walk down which was basically all Joyce had planned for him. Good movers should have more success against Zhang but that doesn't mean he's over hyped. Joyce was throwing 70-100 punches a round and forcing the pace against fighters and even if his power was only 70% of Zhang's he was probably throwing twice as much and fighters Parker's size couldn't match his pace. It's pretty impressive when world class heavyweights of 17 stone can't survive the pace of Joyce who was 19 stone but I doubt he'll be the same mentally after those defeats at his age. Zhang would render Wardley unconscious in my opinion, Frazer Clarke would have a better chance there because he tries to actually box. I also think Zhang has a very good chin.
The chance I'd give Wardley is if Bakole hasn't improved from the Hunter fight because not only is Wardley powerful but he has explosive bursts that could gas a lot of people out.
Great fight.. both are kinda unknowns at the elite level.. as good as Bakole is.. I'd still favor Wardley etc.
Wardley's bursts work if he can take his opponent's power and overwhelm them, but he wouldn't be able to do that against Bakole. Bakole would be throwing bombs back at him with way more power than Wardley has felt so far.
