Martin Bakole and Efe Ajagba boxed to a contentious majority draw on Saturday night.
The pair met each other in an all-African heavyweight clash on the Canelo Alvarez vs William Scull undercard in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Nigeria’s Ajagba frustrated Bakole of Congo with a disciplined display off the back foot.
The 31-year-old was light on his feet as he stuck and moved his way through ten rounds.
Bakole boxed at a pedestrian pace for the first half of the fight but came on strong in the later rounds as he trapped Ajagba against the ropes and let his hands go.
Despite this, many felt it was too little, too late for Bakole, with the DAZN broadcast having Ajagba up by two rounds at the final bell.
One judge agreed with their assessment, scoring the fight 96-94 in Ajagba’s favour.
However, the other two judges had it 95-95 even.
The result didn’t go down well with esteemed boxing journalist Dan Rafael, who tweeted: “We go to the scorecards in #BakoleAjagba: 96-94 Ajagba, 95-95 x 2. A draw. Laughable. Ajagba won that…
“#BakoleAjagba goes 10. Easy work for Ajagba. 8-2. Boxed smart, landed plenty, good defense and movement.
“Bakole as one dimensional as it gets and never landed a big shot. #boxing.”
WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson was in agreement, as he posted: “That’s a robbery.”
And there was a similar reaction from fans. One supporter wrote: “Efe got robbed. Bakole was eating them punches all day.”
Another posted: “They just robbed Ajagba, he won that fight Bakole’s team might have ruined his career with that Parker move lol. Eddie Hearn or Frank would never put Bakole in that Parker’s fight.”
Meanwhile, a third remarked: “That Efe Ajagba fight was not no draw, Bakole lost that.”
Bakole was once viewed as the boogeyman of the heavyweight division.
However, he saw his stock fall in February when he was knocked out by Joseph Parker on two days’ notice.
