Anthony Joshua’s sparring partner Martin Bakole gets 80-second win over Ytalo Perea – The Sun

ANTHONY JOSHUA’S star sparring partner Martin Bakole got his heavyweight career back on track with an 80-second Friday night win.

AJ tipped the Congo-born slugger to capture a world title after they shared hundreds of practice rounds at the Brit hero’s Sheffield training base.

But he was outclassed by the much-smaller Michael Hunter in October and has had to rebuild at his base in Airdrie, Scotland.

Bakole, who sparred the latest English heavyweight sensation Daniel Dubois before his British title win over Nathan Gorman on July 13, demolished Ytalo Perea in just over a minute in Liverpool.

Bakole went 13-1 after dropping Perea in the opening seconds, a crisp right hand landed flush and a left hook sent the Ecuador man tumbling for an eight count.

Perea rose to his feet but was in a poor state and, when he covered up and absorbed two unanswered left hooks, the referee correctly stopped the one-sided battle.

The blink-and-you-missed win was Bakole’s first under Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom banner.

And the promoter joked he would have preferred his new charge to have gone a few more rounds to show off his skills.

Hearn now has a heavyweight-stacked stable that includes Hunter, Hughie Fury, Dereck Chisora, Dillian Whyte, Fabio Wardley and others, so Bakole could be in action again soon.

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