The DOWNFALL Of Tony Yoka - Olympic Gold Medalist

well I guarantee many of you didn't realize that former Olympic gold medalist Tony yoka fought a few weeks ago and to be honest I can't blame you he fought a man called Amin bueta the same fighter Dave Allen yes that Dave Allen beat on points a few weeks prior and I think the strangest part of it was it took place in toall worth England of all places in the toall worth Recreation Center yoka won the fight I mean I bloody hope so with a round four stoppage and now he's got another fight scheduled in the Bren wood Center so how did a fighter with such promise winning Olympic gold at the Rio Olympics go from all of that stardom to now fighting in British Leisure centers well let's discuss over the history of boxing there have been many fighters who didn't live up to expectations Fighters with tremendous amateur careers who couldn't quite translate the same success into the pro game in Britain we saw this with the likes of David Price and orderly Harrison Antony y seems to be heading this way with three back-to-back losses it looks like he's going nowhere however he is still only 32 so in this video I want to discuss what went wrong for yoka and if he can salvage his career in some way back in 2016 Tony yoka went all the way in the Rio Olympic Games winning an Olympic gold medal controversially as many thought his opponent Joe Joyce deserved to win which is a video on its own yoka eventually turned his hand into the pro game in 2017 with many eager to see what the Olympic gold medal winner can do especially as he would be turning pro with famous American trainer Virgil Hunter most well known for his work with Andre Ward and he was the man tasked with overse seeing yoko's development in the Pro game yoka would make his debut in Paris against Regional level American fighter Travis Clark Yoku would take Clark out in round two Clark was swinging wildly looking to brawl and make the fight ugly for yok however in round two yoka would start to dismantle Clark Landing a short left jab which stumbled him followed by a body shot which sent him to the canvas Yoko would smell blood and finish him for good Landing multiple combinations with every punch causing damage dropping him again with the referee stopping the fight shortly after a solid debut win for yoka which he would follow up with wins over domestic level opponents beating Belgium and French heavyweight champions before facing the most well-known name in his career so far the donc cter De La Hoya Dave Allen now I probably don't need to explain who Dave Allen is to those in the UK but those unaware Allen is a domestic level fighter Who has fought the likes of dillian white Lewis Ortiz famously for nine grand among others he's a very tough but limited fighter and was a solid test for yoka at this stage of his career the toughness that Dave Allen became synonymous with was on full display throughout the fight showcasing his excellent chin despite coming into the fight clearly not in the best condition Allen came in to win pling along looking to break down yoka but ultimately took way too many shots showing a lack of head movement and just overall poor defense which allowed yokur to land at will the referee finally saw enough and stopped the fight in round 10 Yoko would finish his next two opponents via KO in round three before facing European champion and former World title Challenger Johan dupass who famously gave Wilder a fairly tough fight taking him all the way to round 11 before being stopped so a very durable fighter a very tough man and I guess you can consider it as a passing of the torch type fight Yan dupas is a very experienced French fighter and obviously Tony yoka is the up incomer so with all that said it was quite surprising to me that Tony yokur dispatched of him so easily it seemed that to pass his punch resistance was completely gone yoka would put him down by an uppercut followed by a right hand it wouldn't take long for yoka to close the show as he would land another solid uppercut putting dup pass down once again with the referee calling off the fight and for context the only other Fighters that have done that to dup pass was Wilder and Alexander petkin and that petkin fight I think dupass took that fight on really short notice so yeah a very credible win for Tony yoka at this stage of his career yoka would then take on another very experienced heavyweight former European Champion Christian Hammer the experienced German fighter would take take yoka the distance the fight wouldn't offer much for yoka other than the opportunity to gain rounds under his belt as Hammer would look to clinch constantly using his veteran tactics fighting very negatively and he just made the fight very hard to watch there is a case to be made that hammer had massively declined at this stage but he was still a very experienced and tricky veteran yoka wasn't too phased with his tactics he stuck to the game plan and deservedly won via unanimous decision after this win Yoko would get himself a shot at the vacant European heavyweight title against Belgium fighter yel jeo or jako go with jeko he was a career Cruiserweight Yoko would dominate most the fight with jeko unable to pose much threats struggling to find his range in round 12 after a one-sided Beatdown from yoka jeko decided it was all too much one single jab would do the trick as jao would turn his back on yoka and opt out of the fight a lot of people were criticizing yok's opponents despite this being his 10th fight however if you compare joka's first 10 opponents to for example Anthony Joshua I think yoka has genuinely fought the better Fighters Christian Hammer yoan dupass Dave Allen although very limited they are very experienced Fighters and very tough after getting a seventh round KO over Croatian fighter Peter melas yoker would now get the chance to fight a true heavyweight Contender and mythical fighter Martin Bola I say mythical because there's been many stories for a good few years now of boli in sparring and what he's like in the gym and after his recent win over Anderson where he absolutely battered him it's quite clear it wasn't all nonsense Boli's only loss came against the excellent Michael Hunter way back in 2018 kind of crazy to think how both men's careers went after that fight but anyway in my opinion this fight wasn't even remotely close and I mean it was an absolute domination from Mak there's a strong argument to be had that yoka didn't even win a single round in this fight boli put a ENT in yoka early on in the fights in round one as moli landed a right hand which made yoka stumble to the ropes with another right hand shortly following which forced yoka to take a KN for the first time in his pro career there was a clear power difference in this fight yoka seemingly couldn't hurt boli yet it seemed boli was hurting yoka consistently in the final round I felt that yoka didn't show anywhere near enough urgency for a man that was clearly losing I don't know if his Corner team were telling him he was winning but he certainly didn't look like a fighter who needed to get a KO to win the fight which in my opinion was his only route to Victory it was ironic that boli was the one imploring yoka to stand and fight yet yoka seemed perfectly happy to go to a decision after utterly dominating the fight boli would win by majority decision as one Maniac tried to Rob boli calling it a draw which is just scandalous to be honest but that's boxing for you now this was quite the upset the vast majority of people were back in yoka with many believing he was the future of the heavyweight division not to play Captain hindsight and just laugh at people who made comments back in the day but I did see people say when Yoko was just turning pro that he was the French AJ yeah back in 20122 boli was perceived much differently from fans compared to now I didn't see many people who were overly impressed with picoli before the fights and this was a real breakout moment for him yoka suffering his first defeat of his pro career would take the rest of the year off to come back against solid gatekeeper Carlos takam who many argued and they were correct that it was a very dangerous and unwise opponent to take when you're looking to come back from a loss and yeah they were proven correct yoka struggled to handle the much smaller man in takam takam is a very underrated fighter he knows how to fight small unlike yoka who just doesn't know how to use his size correctly yoka looked very amateurish in what he does he clearly hadn't managed to adapt to the Pro game as well as many people thought he would and his trainer Virgil Hunter needs to take accountability for that which I'll get on to him soon yoka clearly struggled to handle pressure fighters who would swarm all over him and I believe the lack of power is a big factor for that he's unable to gain the respect of his opponents his lack of Mobility is also a huge problem he's way too passive and for a man his size he lacks a lot of presence in the ring I saw a lot of people talk about the confidence of yoka or lack thereof which I think deserves a mention because he did look like he was lacking conviction with pretty much everything he was doing and I believe that loss against boli clearly damaged his mental fortitude yoka to me doesn't give me the vibe of a fighter and what I mean by that is there's many fighters in boxing that you see that were clearly Born to Fight For example Mike Tyson or alenu Lewis you can tell these guys have natural aggression and violence in them with yoka he looks like someone who fell into boxing because he failed at other sports which sounds really harsh but that's just the vibe that I get from him I don't see natural aggression or a natural fighter instinct when he's forced to face adversity Yoko was outworked for the majority of the fights and going back to the boli fights he showed the exact same issues here he didn't show enough pressure looking to stick behind his jab and I believe a big reason for this is his trainer Virgil Hunter who needs to be criticized as he was in my opinion being extremely dishonest to his fighter saying he was winning every round and giving him false information which I just think put yoka into a full sense of security it's safe to say the relationship between yoka and Hunter just hasn't worked in my opinion Carlos takam would be the deserved winner and get a split decision win which again another terrible scorecard back-to-back losses is a hard one to come back from but takam isn't a pushover he's a very underrated fighter and of course the boli loss aged much better as we saw how good he is but however yoko's next fight could be argued as the final nail in the coffin of any chance at becoming world champion in December of 2023 looking to bounce back from two crushing defeats Tony yre would face former WBA cruiserweight world champion rad mury who recently lost to Jared Anderson earlier this year for this fight yoka had well-known British trainer Don Charles in his Corner who it's fair to say he's a very divisive trainer many people are not high on him in the UK although that perception may have changed slightly with his work with Daniel DUIs guiding him through some solid wins and now obviously getting him to a mega fight with AJ later this year so although I'm not a big Don Charles fan I do think he could potentially have helped yoka deal with pressure Fighters considering Don's very long work with Derek jaora over the years who is a very solid pressure fighter but no nothing positive came from this fight from a Tony yoka perspective rad was a tiny heavyweight and I mean tiny he wasn't even a big cruiserweight yet none of those disadvantages mattered as yoka was completely timid favoring throwing out a few shots then backing off and repeating M he was obviously the much faster fighter and I'd argue the much better boxer he put together some solid combinations and landed the more I catching shots throughout the fights I think it's a mistake that M didn't follow up more on a lot of his shots and try pressure yoka considering how short of confidence yoka is and that game plan from yoka of Just Landing a couple onws and then backing off wouldn't be such an issue if it wasn't for the fact yoko's jab isn't very fast or sharp nor does it contain power behind it now not everybody can have a Lennox Lewis type jab of course Lewis's jab was basically like a power punch for some Fighters but with how weak joka's jab was it just made his game plan redundant and add to that he lacks basic fundamentals that can make up for the lack of power such as good footwork and movement it really goes to show how shot of confidence yoker is when he doesn't want to engage with a guy half his size who also fights quite passively yoka in this fight gave me David Price Vibes in terms of his overall confidence and it was kind of sad to see round 10 came and Don Charles was trying his best to Hype up his fighter but just looking at yoka I saw a man who was just defeated yoka fought again like someone who fly dominated the entire fight and just needed to Coast to the end of the round there's never any urgency to put the fight more in his favor and ultimately he got what he deserved and lost via a split decision many people were calling for Joker's retirement after after the fight and to be honest I can't blame them yoka will have to produce one hell of a comeback story if he wants to get anywhere near a world title fight and after this loss to be honest I completely forgot about Tony yoka I didn't see anybody talking about him and yeah I just completely forgot about him until last month where I saw his name pop up on my subscription feed from the most unlikely source so Dave Allen's YouTube channel which I highly recommend watching he has some cracking stories about fights that he's been in and uh like various sparring stories and uh he made a video about Tony yoka fighting in the UK um at the weekend against Amin petta a journeyman who Allan himself beat on points that same month not something I thought out here but I looked into it check box wck and yes the former Olympic gold medalist was indeed fighting in the toall worth Leisure Center in a very lowkey comeback fight I believe after his loss last year yoka lost his French TV contracts which is the reason all of joka's fights were staged in France and now he's based in the UK in Don Charles's gym it looks like we're going to see him a lot more over here I couldn't find any proper footage of the fights other than someone's recording it ringside but there's nothing really to say yoka stopped bueta in round four after the fight yoka stated on his Instagram he wanted to fight four times this year and has already got a fight scheduled in September in London the opponent is the famous undefeated TBA which most likely is another journeyman but he desperately needs to rebuild his confidence and needs solid matchmaking to rebuild his career whether yoka has anything to offer the division we'll wait and see yoka is still 32 which at heavyweight is still fairly young I mean Jiang is 41 and beat Wilder earlier this year and is heading for another massive fight very soon yoka also hasn't been badly beaten he wasn't stopped in his three losses so he's not completely short in terms of punch resistance but his confidence is the issue and whether he's able to build that up to a level where he can compete with top guys in the division is unlikely I'd love to see a yoka vers Joyce fight maybe like a rematch for the highly controversial Olympic fight but I think it's going to take a while before yoka is ready to take on someone with a pulse so let me know if you think yoka can salvage his career in the comments I'm sure most of you probably don't think he can but it'd be one hell of a combat