Paul Bamba was ambitious and loved by his friends and family. But his quest for success was built on dubious fights and a fatal disregard for his own health
As 2023 drew to a close, Paul Bamba was a marginal club fighter with a record of five wins and three losses, compiled against mediocre opposition. Then his career changed in a very strange way. Bamba fought 14 times in 2024 and won all 14 of those fights by knockout. On 21 December 2024 he was credited with defeating Rogelio Medina Luna in a fight for the World Boxing Association ‘gold’ cruiserweight championship when Medina quit on his stool after the sixth round.
Bamba was living his dream. But the dream appears to have been a fantasy built in significant measure on fixed fights.
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