Bakary Samake

Bio

Bakary Samake is the French-Malian super welterweight who walked into Oberhausen on May 23 2026 with a 19-0 record and walked out 19-1 after losing the WBC final eliminator to Ermal Hadribeaj by majority decision over twelve. A close fight, a competitive fight, but a defeat that knocks Samake one rung back down the WBC ladder.

Samake fought the only way he knows — forward, high volume, body shots. For six rounds he was the busier man and the cleaner aggressor. The trouble started in the second half when Hadribeaj's clinching took the air out of his exchanges and the counter rights began landing on the way in. The judges saw it the same way and Samake's first loss was on the cards from round nine onwards.

At 28 with one defeat on the record and a competitive twelve-rounder against a top-five contender behind him, Samake is far from finished. The talent, the engine and the body attack are all elite. The rebuild starts in France this autumn — and a return to the world title picture inside two years is realistic.