The new year is off to a banner start for boxing’s beloved Purse Bid Heads.

The Ring has confirmed that a Jan. 30 purse bid date has been scheduled for the Martin Bakole-Efe Ajagba IBF heavyweight title eliminator. An extended negotiation period, complete with a targeted springtime fight, still couldn’t produce a deal in the end. The matter is now subject to the highest bidder.

Bakole-Ajagba was first ordered on Nov. 26 and assigned a 30-day negotiation period. It was believed by all involved parties—including the IBF—that an agreement was reached, but there was not enough proof in place for the sanctioning body to leave the matter unattended.

Both fighters are in The Ring top ten heavyweight rankings. Bakole (21-1, 16 KOs), promoted by BOXXER, is No. 6, while the Top Rank-promoted Ajagba (20-1, 14 KOs) is No. 10.

The winner of the ordered fight will become the mandatory challenger to the IBF heavyweight title.

London’s Daniel Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs), The Ring’s No. 2 heavyweight contender, currently holds the belt. He is Rick to defend against former WBO titlist Joseph Parker (35-3, 24 KOs), No. 3 at heavyweight by The Ring, on a Feb. 22 Riyadh Season show in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Bakole has been portrayed as the heavyweight boogeyman.

It is clear that negotiations never seem to go far with the Congolese knockout artist, who is now based in Scotland. He previously targeted eliminators with Zhilei Zhang (27-2-1, 22 KOs) and Agit Kabayel (25-0, 17 KOs), The Ring’s No. 4 and No. 5 heavyweight contenders.

Zhang and Kabayel both found it easier to deal with each other than separately with Bakole. They are due to meet in an interim WBC heavyweight title fight on the same Feb. 22 show as Dubois-Parker.

Bakole fought just once in 2024 but it provided one of the biggest wins of his career.

The 33-year-old banger blasted out unbeaten Jared Anderson (17-0, 15 KOs at the time) in the fifth-round of their Aug. 3 meeting at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles, California. It was believed at the time that the win would lead to bigger opportunities for Bakole, given its placement on Riyadh Season’s first foray into the U.S. market.

Instead, he had to sift through a number of IBF-rated contenders before he landed on talks with Ajagba, a Nigerian heavyweight now based in the greater Houston, Texas area.

The win was the tenth in a row for Bakole since an Oct. 2018 stoppage defeat to Michael Hunter.

Ajagba has won his last five starts since an Oct. 2021 points loss to then-unbeaten Frank Sanchez in Las Vegas.

The competition level has left a bit to be desired from the Nigerian super heavyweight representative in the 2016 Rio Olympics. However, he stepped up in his most recent win, a ten-round, split decision over Guido Vianello (13-2-1, 11 KOs) last April 13 in Corpus Christi, Texas.