Tony Yoka wore quite a few emotions on his sleeve as he walked to the ring to face Petar Milas on Friday night.
As the laser and light show lit up Roland Garros and a mashup of EDM music hyped up the crowd before his usual ring walk music of “Wanksta” by 50 Cent took over, Yoka was visibly excited to be fighting on center court in this kind of environment. While other high level fighters have been in front of crowds during the pandemic, Yoka’s decision to remain in France forced him to fight in mostly empty venues for his last two bouts due to COVID-19 restrictions. Before the fight began, he smashed the top ropes with both gloves. The French hero, who usually has a composed and regal air about him looked a lot more aggressive than usual.
It’s possible that the added intensity and aggression in his pre-fight pageantry, which seemed to seep into his performance in the ring, were rooted in his own feelings about the progression of his career to this point. Over the course of seven rounds, Yoka pressured Milas and ultimately broke him down with body shots before a sweeping left hook sent Milas into disarray that he couldn’t recover from.
Shortly after turning pro following his 2016 Olympic gold medal triumph, Yoka expressed to his promoters that he “didn’t want to take four years to win a world title like Anthony Joshua.” Of course, those years have come and gone. A year spent serving a suspension for a doping violation due to three missed drug tests slowed things down significantly.
Since the suspension, Yoka has defeated a mixture of faded but recognizable heavyweights and more obscure European-level operators like Joel Tambwe Djeko and Milas.
“I’ve been saying I’m ready for some time. I’m waiting for my chance and being allowed to fight against a name, so that I show that I can beat (them). My promoter and manager are trying to calm me down a bit,” Yoka told France24 last week. “I’m tired of fighting guys behind me.”
Yoka lives in France with his wife and fellow Olympic gold medalist Estelle Yoka Mossely and their two children Ali and Magomed. Although the timing might have been ideal to make his American pro debut over the last year or two, the pandemic made that unrealistic. In fact, prior to this bout, Yoka hadn’t been able to spend the majority of his training camp in California with coach Virgil Hunter since the pandemic began. Estelle has her own blossoming pro career (with rumors of a possible bout against Katie Taylor on the horizon) and has fought on the same card as Tony several times, so it likely hasn’t been feasible to uproot the entire family.
Given the circumstances, finding opponents for Yoka “has been complicated,” according to his French promoter Jérôme Abiteboul, who co-promotes him along with Top Rank.
“When you have to face the Olympic champion, the salary expectations are often not realistic and, at the top of the table, the boxers do not want to fight him. only for a title. In the world Top 20, there are also a lot of English and American (fighters) and the television rights in these countries are ten times more important than at home. We are thus confronted with an economic reality,” Abiteboul said in an interview with France 24.
Yoka has a few things working against him in terms of public acceptance. For many, Yoka’s drug testing fiasco will be a stain that cannot be removed from their vision of him, and that may be something he can never fully shake. Certainly many great fighters, past and present, have continued on after issues with PEDs, but in every Twitter or message board thread, there will inevitably be someone who pops up to remind everyone of their misgivings. In addition, Yoka’s Olympic triumphs didn’t come without controversy either. Some believe that his semi-final win over Filip Hrgovic and Joe Joyce should have gone the other way on the scorecards, so there exists a feeling that Yoka is in a position he doesn’t quite deserve. The fact that Joye and Hrgovic have advanced faster as professionals than Yoka—Joyce moreso than Hrgovic—and Yoka’s detractors have a full chamber of ammo to fire at him at any moment.
Even for those who don’t hold deeper vitriol towards Yoka, there is a growing impatience to find out “who’s next” in the heavyweight division. Most of the division’s Top 15 have fought one another by this point, and the top three—Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua—are tied up with one another as well. In an ideal world, the next Olympic crop up, the ones who medaled four years after Joshua and eight years after Wilder, should be the next men up.
This is a feeling Yoka shares. His contemporaries, Joyce and Hrgovic (who also scored a win on Friday), have been in title eliminators and at least discussions for a title eliminator respectively. Yoka and Joyce reportedly had brief discussions for a bout earlier this year, but Joyce wound up fighting Carlos Takam, leaving Yoka to take on Milas.
“I want top level guys: Joe Joyce, Joseph Parker, Dillian White, Dereck Chisora: anyone, we’ll take them,” said Yoka.
The one criticism Yoka was able to take a little steam out of on Friday was the implication that he wasn’t, or couldn’t be entertaining. Yoka’s brand of targeted body punching that chopped Milas down was an atypical heavyweight style, a wrinkle to his offense that paired with his 6’7” frame and astute schooling could make him a fascinating and complex matchup for other top-level fighters.
As he landed his final flurry with seconds remaining in the seventh round, Milas slumped into his own corner. It was a very cinematic ending, fitting, on an event held in honor of the late French film legend Jean-Paul Belmondo. Belmondo, who passed away last week at the age of 88, was a friend of Yoka’s, and had attended every one of his bouts in person prior to the pandemic.
In his post-fight in-ring interview, Yoka held a giant photo of Belmondo and steered all conversation towards honoring his friend.
As remarkable as the atmosphere was and as exciting as the moment could have been, Yoka couldn’t be fully content. Not now. Not yet.