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Boxing: still undefeated after 11 fights, Tony Yoka is now aiming for a world Top 10

He came down from the ring with a large portrait of Jean-Paul Belmondo in his hands and to the applause of the 8,500 spectators and the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron. Winner of Croatian Petar Milas by technical knockout on the 7th round on the center court at Roland Garros, Tony Yoka had an excellent evening this Friday.

“What more could I ask for? It really was a perfect evening. There was all this audience that I had missed so much because of the Covid since I played my last fights behind closed doors, says the contender for the world heavyweight belt. There was a wonderful atmosphere. I did not expect such a welcome at Roland Garros. I even admit that before the fight I was a little stressed. It warmed my heart. There was also the tribute to Mr. Belmondo which I really cared about because he always accompanied me. There was the President of the Republic who came to encourage us, which is a privilege: everything was really there. “

He finished the work of Team Solid

Tony Yoka does not forget a detail either: the return of the “Solid Team” with his friends Mathieu Bauderlique and Souleymane Cissokho who also did the job by seizing a European belt for one and keeping a intercontinental title for the other: “I couldn’t be the only one to lose, laughs the champion. It made us all happy to box together and since the three of us won, what else could we ask for? “

Faced with Petar Milas, a courageous Croatian, a real boxer, pleasant outside the ring but who did not go the distance, Tony Yoka, lightened by a few pounds which allow him to be faster and more powerful, was intelligent … And above all stronger: “I knew he was going to play on his qualities,” Yoka confides. He’s good with both fists. He was not coming to make up. He played with his weapons, I with mine. Above all, I had to be patient. I knew that I was going to get into the fight little by little, that he was going to run out of steam, that I was going to be able to place blows that hurt, especially to the body, before going up to the face. I was keen to win before the limit, on a real knockout. The last two fights had been more complicated. “During his two outings behind closed doors in Nantes in November 2020 and then March 2021, the Olympic champion had to go to the end of the fight. Not this time.

Soon a European belt?

The obstacle Milas swallowed, now in a row. Yoka and his entourage are already thinking about it: “What now? Yes, we want a Top 10, insists the candidate for the world title. I think this victory will push me further up the rankings. “

After 11 fights, Tony Yoka therefore remains undefeated among the pros. Perhaps he will not enter the World Top 10 yet, but he is approaching it. His next fight is scheduled for December. It is whispered without any confirmation that it could take place in the United States where the French has never put the gloves on except in his training camps. A European EBU belt could be involved. It does not yet have the glitz of a world belt but it is getting closer.

Tony Yoka has cleaned up since the start of his career in boxers ranked lower than him at the world level, beyond the 12th place around which he sails. He now wants to rub shoulders with the Elite, the ten best in the world that he will have to challenge one day or another if he wants to titillate a planetary title. Now to the best boxers to say: “Banco, this Frenchman, we take him!” We will thus be fixed for good on the chances of Tony Yoka. They are more and more real.

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