A scene to tell the end of an illusion. Tony Yoka, a headset microphone around his ears but staring into space, while Fabrice Tiozzo, one of the biggest winners in French boxing, tries to debrief your fight lost to Ryad Mehry without rushing him too much: “It seems like you’re still holding back. Pay attention to this, pay attention to that, put your jab thing… It’s very hard to judge your fight today by rounds, I’m not a judge. But if we do something general, it hit a lot harder. Your left jabs are beautiful, they are strong, but do you win a fight with left jabs? Do you understand what I mean? “.
Conquest far behind
Not really. As much dazed as dejected, the man from Rio is lost. Even the magic of the Roland-Garros Central, scene of its last victory in 2021, no longer acts. Maybe he’s already doing the math? Three defeats in a row, a place in the soft underbelly of the world elite (28th), no chance of becoming world heavyweight champion in the medium term, to be kind, and Canal’s gold-plated contract (8 million for 15 fights) soon to expire. We would almost come to regret the blessed time of good-natured mockery, when the world of boxing and those who are vaguely interested in it had the marketing slogan around the man – “conquest” – dotted with battles won in advance against nightclub bouncers.
The previous setbacks had already scalded the barge, but at least they had been charged by two drivers on the circuit, Martin Bakolé and Carlos Takam. But what can we say about this soulless fight against a very banal Belgian hitter? Brahim Asloum, who did not skimp on encouragement throughout the evening, had difficulty digesting: “I went to see him in the locker room, I just said something to him: ”Listen, if you you lost, it’s your fault. Against Bakolé or Carlos (Takam), you suffered, you took a spanking. Learning is different. But here, you only have yourself to blame. You lose by two points. If you win two rounds, there is a draw and we are no longer talking about the same thing. And if you do a little more, you win the fight. As an Olympic champion, you don’t have the right to do the minimum when you’re criticized and everyone wants your head.”
A dotted future
One wonders if Yoka still knows why he boxes, when we saw him unable to take advantage of his reach against an opponent who was supposed to allow him to to get started again inexpensively. However, he had promised “that we were going to see what we were going to see” from the first rounds, reinforced by a change of coach that all observers called for their wishes. Exit Virgil Hunter, welcome Don Charles. But we saw nothing of his famous left “jab” and his sense of movement, the two qualities that could make him a champion among the pros, one day.
Even that, he does it less well than before, deplores Asloum. Because he started to doubt. It’s like in football, a center forward with full confidence scores legendary goals. We can’t say he doesn’t work. He works. But he lost some of that self-confidence. It’s hard yes. But you are privileged, it’s up to you to be tougher. To be champion, you have no choice.”
Is Yoka one of them? Obviously, we are talking about an Olympic champion. Did he see himself as too beautiful and us with it, in an unforgiving category? Certainly. This new defeat, whichever way you look at it, seems to spell the end of the ball. The Frenchman has never seemed so far from a world chance, and at 30 brooms, the good years to live in heavyweights can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
“Is he capable of hurting himself?” »
Asloum is not resigned to it: “I know what is said around him, we talk about arrogance… In fact, he pays for all that and so we don’t want to give him a gift. I hear everyone wants to bury him. But what we can’t measure is what’s in his head, what’s in his stomach. He has a speech (from his new trainer) in front of him that is harsher, more violent, more real no doubt. Only he knows. Is he capable of leaving again? Is he capable of hurting himself? As for all the people who express opinions about him, these are just hypotheses. The human being has a capacity that we do not know.” It’s up to Yoka to reveal hers urgently.