Boxing – Light Heavy Championship – Artur Beterbiev v Dmitrii Bivol – Weigh-In – Boulevard City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – February 21, 2025 Joseph Parker through the Weigh-In as promoters Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren look on REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Joseph Parker got here to Saudi Arabia to attempt to win the IBF heavyweight title from Daniel Dubois.
As a substitute, Parker has turned his attention to Congolese heavyweight Martin Bakole after Dubois withdrew from Saturday’s fight after falling ailing.
Article continues after this commercial
A final-minute substitute, Bakole missed Friday’s weigh-in because he was still en path to Riyadh from Kinshasa in Congo.
READ: Joseph Parker beats Fury on points, retains WBO heavyweight title
“To Daniel Dubois, I hope he gets higher soon,” Parker said after weighing in at 267 kilos (121 kilograms). “To Martin Bakole, thanks for taking this fight on short notice. I’m looking forward to being in a hoop with him tomorrow and going to work.”
Article continues after this commercial
The normal staredown turned playful when Dubois’ promoter, Frank Warren, filled the void before poking Parker’s midsection.
Warren told iFL TV that Dubois will incur “a large loss” due to sunk costs in training camp. Dubois had been set for “an unbelievable purse.”
Bakole chronicled his journey Friday on Instagram. He took a flight from Kinshasa to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
“Yet another flight,” he wrote before the subsequent leg to the Saudi capital, where he was expected to land well past midnight local time.
READ: Dubois changes perceptions, muscles onto top of heavyweights
“I can’t wait,” he said in a video post before the primary flight. “I feel I’ll shock the world tomorrow. A boxer is sort of a soldier, anytime they ask you to go to war, all the time be ready.”
Regardless that there’s no shot at a world title Saturday, the Parker-Bakole winner can be in line to fight Oleksandr Usyk for the Ukrainian’s WBO belt. The WBO announced the winner would change into the mandatory challenger.
Parker (35-3, 23 KOs) is a former WBO champion. The Recent Zealander won the belt in December 2016 when he beat Andy Ruiz and lost it to Anthony Joshua 15 months later.
Bakole (21-1, 16 KOs) weighed over 280 kilos (127 kgs) in his most up-to-date fight when he stopped Jared Anderson within the fifth round last August in Los Angeles.
Dubois hoped to win after which tackle Usyk later this yr. He made his first title defense last September with a brutal fifth-round knockout of Joshua in front of 96,000 fans at Wembley Stadium.
The London resident became the titleholder three months earlier when the IBF belt was vacated by Usyk.
Saturday’s essential attraction is the rematch between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol. Beterbiev became the undisputed light-heavyweight world champion after a contentious points decision over Bivol in October.
