Tony Yoka’s once-promising career is under threat after the 2016 Olympic gold medallist suffered his second consecutive defeat when going down on points to Carlos Takam in Paris.
The 42-year-old breathed more life into his career by upsetting Yoka, but the big story emerging from the result will be where Yoka goes next.
Takam began the fight in his usual aggressive manner, and he didn’t exit that strategy at any point in the fight as Yoka failed to match his opponent’s workrate.
Throwing single shots, Yoka opted to secure points but his amateur approach, one that served him so well in multiple tournaments, didn’t appear to be the right solution against the marauding tactics of Takam.
Takam did slow down in the fight’s second half, but it still looked that he was far hungrier than Yoka who didn't show any signs of improvement following his loss to Martin Bakole last year.
Appearing like he needed to win the last two rounds, the single jab of Yoka didn’t look enough to grab any of the last sessions as Takam just kept moving forward.
After the final bell, there was a nervous wait for the scores, and even though one judge went for Yoka with a 96-94 verdict, that card was weighed down by the remaining scorecards which both favoured Takam by the same score.
Takam will be hopeful of landing another big opportunity whilst Yoka has a huge decision to make regarding what direction he heads in.