Ten months after his defeat against Martin Bakole, Tony Yoka was back in the ring on Saturday night at the Zenith in Paris. Opposed to Carlos Takam, one of the best French heavyweights of the last decade, the Olympic champion of Rio in 2016 suffered a new defeat by decision of the referees, two judges to one. The public at the Zenith even whistled the judge who gave the advantage to Yoka.
After a round of observation, the fight escalated in the next two rounds rather to the advantage of Takam, who landed a few dull blows. But the first real big strike came at the start of the fourth round with a powerful right hook from the veteran (42) which wobbled Yoka. The fight then hardened and even if the younger of the two boxers fought back, he had already received twice as many blows at the end of the 4th round.
“He is a very good boxer with a record that speaks for him, had warned Yoka before the fight in an interview with Parisian-Today in France. It’s up to me to show that I have other ambitions than his, that I have another level. It’s up to me to show that I’m capable of passing this stage to start again. Winning against him will restart the trick. »
Yoka fails to make a difference at the end
It was not the case. During the 5th but even more so during the 6th round, the fight intensified with a series of blows taken by Yoka against a still dominating Takam. In the seventh round, Yoka recovered by placing two good straight lines, taking advantage of a slightly low guard from Takam on the left side, before in turn cashing in two successive straight lines, the second causing his gumshield to fly .
The rest of the fight was rather controlled by Yoka, with a few left hooks, but without a very hard blow to Takam. At the end of the ninth round, the count of blows noted by Canal + still gave an advantage to the older of the two voxers (90 to 62). Yoka had no other choice but to uncover himself in the last round to avoid a defeat on points but failed to make a noticeable difference.
“I have worked a lot and, to put it bluntly, I am in the perspective of sink or swim, Yoka had said before the fight. I know where I want to go and I’m going straight there. Not sure he was expecting this destination.