AFCON 2025
The highly anticipated heavyweight boxing bout between Nigeria’s Efe Ajagba and DR Congo’s Martin Bakole ended on a rather controversial note.
Efe Ajagba and Martin Bakole fought in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia under the Canelo Alvarez vs William Scull undercard.
Efe Ajagba, the Rio 2016 Olympic Bronze medalist started the bout with a more disciplined display as he moved around light and swifty in the ring.
The 31-year-old landed landed clean punches on the Congolese fighter in the opening few rounds of the bout as he showed his dominance.
Martin Bankole was quite pedestrian and boxed on a rather slow pace unlike his Nigerian opponent. However, Bakole raised his game much later in the bout as he pushed Ajagba to the ropes.
However, boxing enthusiasts belived Bakole’s “fire brigade” effort in the latter rounds was little to late to salvage in slopiness in the opening rounds as Ajagba clearly won the fight.
One of the judges scored the fight 96-94 in favour of Efe Ajagba, while the two others scored it a 95-95 draw.
WBC lightweight champion Shakur criricised the result as he posted: “That’s a robbery.”
Popular boxing journalist Dan Rafael called the result laughable in a post after the match.
“We go to the scorecards in #BakoleAjagba: 96-94 Ajagba, 95-95 x 2. A draw. Laughable. Ajagba won that…”
“Bakole as one dimensional as it gets and never landed a big shot. #boxing.”
“#BakoleAjagba goes 10. Easy work for Ajagba. 8-2. Boxed smart, landed plenty, good defense and movement.”
Efe Ajagba in a post reaction called for a re-match in the United States.
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