Bakole ‘punished’ for upset Anderson?

Paulie Malignaggi thinks heavyweight Martin Bakole should have been brought back for Turki Al-Shiekh’s card in Riyadh after upsetting previously undefeated Jared Anderson on the August 3 card in Los Angeles, California.

Malignaggi says the fight was obviously about Anderson (17-1, 15 KOs), not Bakole (21-1, 16 KOs) because he wasn’t invited back despite scoring an impressive fifth-round knockout.

Overlooked and underrated

Anderson, 25, was a highly touted fighter being groomed by his promoters at Top Rank to become the next great American heavyweight, replacing the aging Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. Bakole ruined things by destroying Jared in a three-knockdown performance, and his career is now on shaky legs.

Riyadh cards need higher standards for those who fight on them because too many fighters are not part of them. For example, the December 21st card only had one good fighter on the undercard, Serhii Bohachuk, and the rest were awful.

Bakole was more deserving of being in the main event challenging unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk than an old, bearded and faded-looking Tyson Fury.

No return to Riyadh

“You talk about the Jared Anderson-Bakole fight. That fight was about Jared Anderson. In the end it was a tribute to Martin Bakole,” Paulie Malignaggi told Probox TV, speaking about Jared Anderson’s loss to Martin Bakole on the Turki Al-Shiekh card on August 3 in Los Angeles.

“We can say, looking at it in hindsight, that it wasn’t Bakole because no one brought him back. I feel like he was treated unfairly. He should have been brought back. It was kind of a giveaway for Jared Anderson that turned into a giveaway for Bakole, and now he’s getting punished for it. I think Bakole should be brought back.

“If you’re going to do this, there needs to be a standard set. There are many positive aspects. I wouldn’t say that’s a criticism. I would say that in a way it’s constructive criticism because there’s a lot to praise about what’s going on there [Riyadh, Saudi Arabia]”, said Malignaggi.

It appears Bakole was punished for beating A-side fighter Jared Anderson. However, Matchroom and Queensberry do not promote Bakole, two of the promotional companies Turki uses as a source of fighters to fill his Riyadh season cards. If Bakole had been promoted by one of those companies, he could have been brought back for the December 21 card.

“At the same time, there are things that can be done better and you want to see this sport and fighters grow. Part of it is knowing when to heavily compensate and when not to overcompensate,” Malignaggi said.

Many of the fighters on Turki’s cards are those recommended by British promoters, and many of them are advertising jobs, house-level scrubs or older guys. We see Tyson Fury and Anthony receiving ridiculous amounts of money despite being wiped out.

It would be better for the sport if past frontrunners were phased out, and Turki would say no to promoters trying to fill cards with non-world class fighters who don’t belong on the main cards.

The recent December 21st card was full of limited fighters that fans outside of the UK had never heard of before and will hopefully never hear of again.