Carlos Takam had kind words for Tony Yoka, after his points victory over the Frenchman, Saturday night at the Zenith in Paris. The Franco-Cameroonian assured: "Tony is the future of boxing in France, I believe in him. " But Yoka still suffered a second consecutive defeat after his loss to Martin Bakole ten months ago.
The 2016 Olympic champion, who had himself warned that he had no right to make mistakes, bowed on a split decision of the judges and greeted by a few whistles at the end of ten very close rounds (96-94, 96-94, 94-96). At 30 years old, Yoka now has eleven wins for two losses and sees the rest of his professional career seriously compromised.
96 - 94 94 - 96 96 -
94
đ„ Carlos Takam wins by split
decision! Second defeat in a row for Tony Yoka! đ„ #YokaTakam pic.twitter.com/JGaH6Y0wfL
â CANAL+ Sport (@CanalplusSport) March 11, 2023
Access to this content has been blocked in order to respect your choice of consent
By clicking on "I ACCEPT", you accept the deposit of cookies by external services and will thus have access to the content of our partners
I AGREE
And to better pay 20 Minutes, do not hesitate to accept all cookies, even for one day only, via our button "I accept for today" in the banner below.
More information on the Cookie Policy page.
To start again, he could have gone for an opponent with modest pedigree, but it was against the experienced Carlos Takam (now 40 wins for 7 losses and a draw) that he had chosen to make his return. Even if it was not the Takam of the great years, the one that put Anthony Joshua or Alexander Povetkin in difficulty, the Franco-Cameroonian was a very solid opponent in the category. At 42, he is at the end of his career but has serious references on his CV and still represents a danger in the ring, with his 117.6 kg and his 87 meter.
Lowered ambitions?
Much younger and taller than his opponent, Yoka, who had never been heavier (113.9 kg), was active and mobile from the beginning of the hostilities, but Takam had control of the center of the ring. This second consecutive defeat should take his dreams of the world belt a little further.
Now, Yoka will have to lower his ambitions and fight even harder to find opponents who can bring him closer to the top 10. "This is not the end," promised Tony Yoka, who plans to return to the ring next June. "It just proves to me that I have to keep working technically, tactically, that I'm improving some things to get through stages like tonight." The work is enormous.
- Boxing
- Sport
- Tony Yoka