When Floyd Schofield was pulled from his fight with Shakur Stevenson on this weekend's 'Last Crescendo' show, most thought that would be the first and last card casualty.

But with two days to go until the huge bill in Riyadh, boxing has done its thing once again. Daniel Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) is out of his IBF heavyweight title defence against Joseph Parker (35-3, 23 KOs) after being struck down with an unspecified illness.

Parker was left without an opponent for nothing more than a couple of hours, however, as in steps Martin Bakole (21-1, 16 KOs), who was originally scheduled to face Efe Ajagba (20-1, 14 KOs) in an IBF final eliminator on May 2 in New York - Ring Magazine's first US-based card.

Lawrence Okolie (21-1, 16 KOs) and David Adeleye (13-1, 12 KOs) were touted as potential opponents for Parker, but both men also have upcoming bouts on April 5 against Joe Joyce (16-3, 15 KOs) and Jeamie TKV (8-1, 5 KOs), respectively.

Bakole's promoter Ben Shalom, who is in Saudi Arabia to support Joshua Buatsi in his bout with Callum Smith, confirmed to The Ring's Louis Hart that the deal to put the African in with Parker was completed extremely quickly.

Shalom said: "He's on the next flight from the Congo. It was made in no uncertain terms that Martin wanted this fight. I apologise if I looked rude [at the press conference]. I was trying to make the fight.

"I came out of the press conference, spoke to His Excellency a couple of times and the deal was done in about 15 minutes.

"I saw the news you saw around Daniel. Obviously at that point with everyone putting their names forward, we felt the only 50-50, the Bakole fight was the only fight to make.

"I hope Martin Bakole gets the appreciation of every single boxing fan because to do this on two days' notice with a final eliminator around the corner, for our entertainment, he deserves absolutely all the credit.

"If I'm being honest, he's in the Congo, his fight isn't supposed to be for two-and-a-half months. But he's a special animal, when we say we'll fight anyone, we mean it. Credit to Joseph as well. He's not had a camp but he's a special talent."

Naturally, Shalom is more than confident that Bakole can walk away from Riyadh's ANB Arena with the win, which would see him take Parker's WBO 'Interim' heavyweight title in the process.

"I think [Bakole] will win, I think he's going to shock the world. For me he's the No. 1 heavyweight in the world, name any other heavyweight who does this on two days' notice."

The fight is Bakole's second under the Riyadh Season banner, after knocking out American heavyweight Jared Anderson (18-1, 15 KOs) on the Terence Crawford-Israil Madrimov card in Los Angeles last August.

Parker is fighting for the fourth consecutive time in Riyadh, having beaten Simon Kean, Deontay Wilder (43-4-1, 42 KOs) and Zhilei Zhang (27-2-1, 22 KOs) in each of his last three clashes.