Martin Bakole was spotted wearing gloves meant for Daniel Dubois after stepping in to fight Joseph Parker at just 48 hours’ notice.
Parker was initially set to challenge Dubois for his IBF world heavyweight title but the contest was thrown into disarray when the Brit withdrew due to illness.
It left event organisers scrambling to find a new opponent for Parker, which arrived when Bakole agreed to step in at late notice.
The 31-year-old immediately travelled around 3,800 miles to Saudi Arabia, having been working on a farm in his home country of the Democratic Republic of the Congo when he got the call.
Bakole missed the weigh-in on Friday night but arrived in Riyadh just in time to step into the ring on Saturday. The rushed nature of the fight was clear to see when it became apparent that Bakole had not even brought his own pair of gloves.
He was spotted wearing gloves with ‘DDD’ written across them, indicating they were meant for Dubois. It can only be assumed that there was not enough time to prepare his own set of gloves given the short notice of the fight.
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