Martin Bakole gets rapid shot at redemption in rescheduled Efe Ajagba bout

Martin Bakole’s instant acceptance of a Saudi Arabia replacement-bout junket that led to him getting knocked out has not passed without appreciation.

Bakole has been invited back to Riyadh, taking his originally planned May 2 heavyweight showdown against Efe Ajagba at New York’s Times Square to the Middle East, with the pair now set to do battle on the undercard of the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez-William Scull undercard May 3, an official involved in the deal confirmed to BoxingScene on Tuesday.

On the heels of his destructive August 3 knockout of then-unbeaten young contender Jared Anderson in Los Angeles, Bakole, 21-2 (16 KOs), was sought as a last-minute replacement for ailing IBF heavyweight Daniel Dubois, who withdrew from his planned February 22 title defense against former WBA titleholder Joseph Parker, 36-3 (24 KOs).

Showing up in the hours before the bout at a stout 310 pounds, Bakole was bopped on the temple by a Parker blow that sent the Congo fighter wobbling backward and finished in the second round.

While that zapped the 33-year-old Bakole’s career momentum – while making Parker the WBO mandatory challenger as he rides an impressive winning streak that includes triumphs over Deontay Wilder and Zhilei Zhang, too – he received a pretty rapid shot at redemption on the May 3 card.

Marked by Alvarez’s new alignment with Saudi Arabian boxing power broker Turki Alalshikh in a four-fight deal that starts with the Mexico product seeking to recapture his standing as undisputed super middleweight champion against Cuba’s Scull, Bakole meets Nigeria’s Ajagba, 20-1 (14 KOs), in a clash of power punchers who likely won’t last long.

Bakole still stands as a top-five heavyweight in the WBC, IBF and WBA, and Ajagba is No. 9 in the WBO rankings.

The May 3 card also includes the Jaime Munguia-Bruno Surace super middleweight rematch following Surace’s stunning knockout of Munguia in his hometown of Tijuana, Mexico, in December.

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.