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BILLY NELSON ON BAKOLE: "IT WILL ONLY BE A MATTER OF TIME"


Martin Bakole fights Gabriel Enguema this Saturday at the Newcastle Arena on the Robbie Davies Jr vs Lewis Ritson undercard.


It only took Bakole less than 90 seconds to dispatch of the Ecuadorian, Ytalo Perea in his last fight which was also his debut on the Matchroom banner. The victory took Bakole’s professional record to 13-1-0 and now faces a tough and durable boxer in Enguema who has gone the distance with the likes of Oscar Rivas and Evgeny Romanov.


I spoke to Billy Nelson, Martin Bakole’s trainer and he is expecting a tough fight.



“Martin has had a great long camp, he spent 2 weeks down in Sheffield sparring with Kash Ali and is looking really sharp and ready for Saturday night.”

Billy is expecting a good test for his fighter and is hoping for a dominant display before a potential bout with a top 10 heavyweight towards the end of the year.


“You don’t go the distance with the likes of Oscar Rivas and Evgeny Romanov if you are not a good, competent fighter. We potentially have a bout towards the end of the year lined up, so I am extremely thankful to Eddie Hearn and Matchroom for putting Martin on this bill to sharpen up his tools. Keeping active is everything for a boxer so they can keep up their momentum”.

Martin Bakole signed for the Matchroom stable in July 2019 and is hoping to achieve big things with the help of Eddie Hearn. Bakole has only one defeat on his record and that was against the American heavyweight, Michael Hunter. They are both under the same banner and it is a fight Billy wants again in the near future. 


“We would take that fight tomorrow. Martin was having some family issues that I knew nothing about but if I did, there’s no way I would have let him fight that night against Hunter.”.

If Martin Bakole is successful Saturday night against Enguema and his potential bout in November 2020 could be the year that he fights for a world title. 


“We would fight for a world title by the end of this year if the opportunity was there. It will only be a matter of time”.

Billy has made it clear on numerous occasions that the likes of Joe Joyce and David Price don’t want to fight Bakole because they know the danger he possesses.


“We have asked Joe Joyce for over 2 years now to fight Martin but he’s not interested, so that fight will never happen. We have also asked the likes of David Price and Derek Chisora to fight but they won’t fight him either. Price won’t fight Martin because he know’s he’ll get knocked out within 3 rounds”.

It has been a fantastic year for Bakole with the victory in Poland over Mariusz Wach and signing with Matchroom and he will no doubt be looking to go out of 2019 with a bang. 

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