The hard-hitting Nigerian heavyweight will meet Martin on Sunday night in Ajagba’s first fight since his debatable majority draw with Bakole nine months ago. Ajagba was mindful of Bakole’s heavy hands, but The Ring’s No. 8 contender for Oleksandr Usyk’s title won’t approach Martin with the same level of respect.

“He’s not a puncher,” Ajagba told The Ring. “I’ve fought people that punch, not people like Charles Martin. Charles Martin can’t punch. I can’t wait.”

Martin is 39 and has fought only once in the past 31 months. The former IBF champ noticeably buzzed then-unbeaten knockout artist Jared Anderson twice in his last meaningful fight, though, and dropped dangerous Cuban southpaw Luis Ortiz twice two bouts before he lost to Anderson by unanimous decision in July 2023.

Ortiz recovered and stopped Martin in the sixth round of their action-packed clash in January 2022. Ajagba anticipates joining Ortiz and former unified heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua as opponents who’ve beaten Martin inside the distance.

“I’m gonna knock him out,” Ajagba said. “Charles Martin doesn’t like to put his hands up. But I don’t care – if he picks his hands up, it doesn’t matter to me. I’ll just touch him, touch him, touch him, touch him.”

Ajagba, 31, won five fights in a row before he battled Bakole (21-2-1, 16 KOs) on May 3 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The 6-foot-6, 240-pound Ajagba (20-1-1, 14 KOs) has lost only a unanimous decision to Cuban contender Frank Sanchez (25-1, 18 KOs), who was undefeated when they fought in October 2021.

The 2016 Olympian appreciates the opportunity to headline a Zuffa Boxing card, which Paramount+ will stream from UFC’s Meta APEX performance center in Las Vegas (9 p.m. ET; 6 p.m. PT). Though Ajagba expects to dominate Martin, he hasn’t overlooked the 6-foot-5, 250-pound southpaw because he also realizes Martin (30-4-1, 27 KOs) will approach this 10-round bout as his last chance to rejuvenate his career almost 10 years after Joshua knocked him out in the second round to earn the British superstar his first world title.

Ajagba nonetheless knows he has been installed as an 11-1 favorite by DraftKings for good reason.

“He doesn’t have anything to bring to me,” Ajagba said. “He doesn’t have any chance. Even though he fought Joshua, Ortiz, Jared Anderson, I was not impressed at all. … Everybody says Charles Martin is the former IBF world champion. Good for him, but I don’t care. It isn’t a fight because Charles Martin is scared of me, to be honest. He’s scared. We were supposed to spar last year and he refused to spar me.

“I said, ‘Let’s do sparring.’ He said if I’m fighting a southpaw, let him know. I said, ‘I’m not fighting a southpaw, but [we can spar].’ And he refused. He didn’t wanna spar. He knows that. But here we are – he wants to fight me in a real fight. I was like, ‘Oh, I’m glad you accepted the fight.’ I was surprised.”