Things are already looking bleak for heavyweight Martin Bakole’s comeback fight on December 11th. He’s supposed to be fighting unbeaten Solomon Adebayo on the undercard of Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua in Cardiff, Wales. It might not happen, though.

Bakole’s promoter, Ben Shalmon of BOXXER, reportedly found out after the fact that he’s on the card, and believes he’s still under contract with his company. According to Yahoo Sports, he’s going to alert his lawyers.

It’s fair to say few fans in the States have heard of Adebayo, so Bakole fighting him isn’t going to add much interest to the Fury vs. Joshua card. If Dana White of Zuffa gave the green light to Bakole’s fight with Adebayo, he’s misjudged the average fan. They’re not going to be excited to learn Bakole is fighting this guy. It is good that Bakole is finally fighting after a year out of the ring, because he hasn’t seen action since May 2025.

I can see why Shalom wouldn’t be pleased, especially if Bakole comes in out of shape and loses. Whatever value he still has would further plummet. He looked terrible getting knocked out by Joseph Parker in the 2nd round in February 2025. He looked equally bad in fighting to a questionable 10-round draw last year in May.

At this point, it’s hard to pick Bakole to beat anyone in absolute certainty, because he’s not the same fighter given his battle of the bulge he’s been dealing with.

“I saw the announcement at the same time you did,” said Shalom, as reported by Darshan Desai of Uncrowned. Shalom told Desai that BOXXER’s position on Bakole’s contract remains the same as it was in the spring.

Bakole’s weight was above or just below 300. He was way too heavy for an athlete to compete at that level. A fight was mentioned: Bakole vs. Guido Vianello on the Oleksandr Usyk vs. Rico Verhoeven undercard in Egypt, which BOXXER wanted for him. He didn’t agree to the fight, according to Darshan Desai, because he believed his contract was up.

It may have been a good thing that Bakole didn’t take that fight with Vianello. All that weight that he’s been carrying around since his upset win over Jared Anderson would be a real anchor, making him a sitting duck for a well-conditioned Vianello. I mean, I wouldn’t take that fight either if I were Bakole, weighing over 300 pounds. I hate to say it, but the Italian Olympian would be too much for him.

The question is, if Shalmon gets his way in blocking Bakole from fighting on the Fury-Joshua undercard, what is he going to do with him? His weight isn’t showing any signs of dropping, and he’s not getting any younger at 32.

Without him dropping a good 20-30 lbs, he ain’t beating any of the top-tier heavyweights, at least the ones that matter. Bakole has to show he can still beat contender-level fighters, because he has only one win over Jared Anderson.