Palais des Sports in Paris, France - Olympic gold medal winner Tony Yoka (4-0, 3 KOs) continued his undefeated march in the heavyweight division by breaking down and ultimately stopping former French heavyweight champion Cyril “Aldo” Leonet (13-10-3, 4 KOs) in the fifth round of action.
The fight is Yoka's first bout of the year.
Yoka won the gold at the 2015 AIBA World Boxing Championships, earning him a spot at the 2016 Olympic Games at Rio de Janeiro. In the final round, he won a close and some felt controversial decision over and undefeated heavyweight prospect, Joe Joyce, to capture Olympic gold. For France, it was their first Super Heavyweight gold medal in their history.
Yoka also beat former beat former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker to win a gold medal at the the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics in Singapore. At the 2010 Youth World Amateur Boxing Championships he lost the final to Filip Hrgovic.
Last month, Yoka found himself in some hot water after being handed a suspended one-year ban by the French boxing federation on Tuesday for missing four doping tests.
The 25-year-old was penalized after missing the unannounced tests between July 2016 and July 2017.
His lawyer, Arnaud Pericard, told AFP that the first missed test came while Yoka was on a plane back from training in the United States, and the second came "during a period of relaxation", when he "didn't know he was still subject to geolocation requirements".
The last two missed tests also came when controllers went to Yoka's house in France while he was in the United States, according to Pericard.
In 2017, Yoka turned professional and signed a promotional pact with Richard Schaefer of Ringstar and David Haye of Hayemaker. The boxer is trained by veteran coach Virgil Hunter. He fought and beat Travis Clark in his debut fight at Le Palais des Sports in Paris, on June 2017.
