Parker was originally set to face Daniel Dubois for the IBF world title. Dubois got sick and had to pull out of the card just days before the fight. Bakole stepped in as a last-minute replacement, flying in from Congo and arriving at 2 AM on the morning of the fight. He even slept in the changing room to prepare.
The fight didn't last long. Parker caught Bakole on the top of the head, sending him to the canvas. Bakole's trainer, Billy Nelson, pulled him out of the fight.
Parker has been on a roll lately. He beat Zhilei Zhang on points, even though Zhang knocked him down twice. Before that, he outpointed Deontay Wilder, managing to avoid Wilder's powerful punches. Now, Parker hopes to get his shot at Dubois as soon as Dubois is healthy.
After the fight, Bakole shared his thoughts on how a Parker vs Dubois match might go. In an interview with FightHype, Bakole predicted Parker would win:
"If you watch the interviews I was picking Joseph Parker to beat Daniel Dubois because of movement and his boxing brain. His elusiveness.
Daniel Dubois, we saw it against Usyk, he struggled with someone who is moving a lot. So I think that was going to happen. We saw a different Joseph last night because everything changes, I was not Dubois. He was fighting someone who was moving and someone who is [tougher] than Daniel.
I was for Parker to win. That was my opinion from the beginning."
Bakole thinks Parker's movement and boxing smarts would give Dubois trouble. He pointed out that Dubois struggled against Oleksandr Usyk, who moves a lot in the ring.
It's not clear if Parker and Dubois will reschedule their fight. Dubois holds the IBF world title, and he might go straight into an undisputed fight with Oleksandr Usyk once he's back in action. The Parker bout was a voluntary defense, so they're less likely to set it up again.