Martin Bakole To Make His US Debut Despite Unresolved Child Pornography Incident

Trigger Warning: This article makes reference to child pornography and child molestation.

Heavyweight contender Martin Bakole (20-1, 15 KOs) is set to take on the highly touted, undefeated American prospect Jared “The Real Big Baby” Anderson in one of the marquee matchups on tonight’s stacked Riyadh Season card, headlined by Terence Crawford vs. Israil Madrimov. Bakole, who has fought primarily in the UK, makes his US debut in hopes of being the first to derail the Jared Anderson train. However, Bakole’s inclusion on this card has raised significant concerns among boxing fans due to an unresolved child pornography scandal.

In the spring of 2020, Martin Bakole uploaded a deplorable 19-second video to his Twitter feed (@MartinBakole01) that depicted an adult male raping a minor child. The tweet, captioned “This bastard is very wicked man,” drew swift and widespread criticism from boxing fans for disseminating such a horrific video. Bakole quickly deleted the tweet following the backlash and sent out another tweet saying, “I apologize for the video guys,” which was also quickly deleted.

The shocking nature of the tweet left boxing fans questioning why Martin Bakole would upload and disseminate such content in the first place. Eddie Hearn, who was Bakole’s promoter at Matchroom Boxing at the time, did not comment on the matter. Bakole took days to address the situation, eventually posting a statement on his Twitter account: “I want to address my post last week. My intention was to draw attention to the disgusting and vile person in the video, not condone the action IN ANY WAY. My culture is to expose these nasty people. I now understand this is not the right approach through social media and I am very sorry for posting the video.”

Despite his apology, Bakole did not address critical questions, such as where and whom did he receive the video from, why the video was stored on his device and if he turned over the video and the person that sent it to the proper authorities.

Section 52 of Scotland’s (where Bakole resides) 1982 Civic Government Act states that “It is an offence for a person to have any indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child under the age of 18 years in their possession.” Furthermore, the Scottish High Court decided that actually downloading a photograph does constitute making the photograph and that the continued retention of the photographs on a computer constitutes possession.

The British Boxing Board of Control, while clarifying that Bakole wasn’t licensed by them at the time of the incident, issued a statement through general manager, Robert Smith. Smith said, “We obviously are aware of the situation and will monitor accordingly.” Bakole was subsequently licensed and allowed to compete on a December 2020 SKY Box Office card, headlined by Anthony Joshua. The BBBoC has never issued any statements regarding the disposition of Bakole’s situation or why he was licensed to fight.

The actual card was organized and promoted by Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boxing. Eddie Hearn has not issued any statements addressing why Bakole was allowed to compete.

Bakole has since signed a multi-fight deal with Ben Shalom’s BOXXER and now has the opportunity to achieve a career-making victory against Anderson.

Turki Alalshikh, the organizer and sponsor of tonight’s Riyadh Season card, has not addressed Bakole’s child pornography situation. It is unclear how much, if any, he is aware of the situation.