Martin Bakole says he saw fear in Jared Anderson’s eyes during their face-off this week at the grand arrivals in Los Angeles ahead of their heavyweight fight this Saturday night, August 3rd, at the BMO Stadium.
(Photo credit: Mark Robinson Matchroom Boxing)
Bakole (20-1, 15 KOs) saw the fear in the 24-year-old Anderson’s eyes, and he knows he can’t take it. The 6’6″ Bakole predicts an early knockout in the fifth round against Anderson (17-0, 15 KOs), and he’s looking forward to it.
Martin says if he doesn’t knock Anderson out, he’ll punish him and give him a beating in their fight on DAZN PPV. There will be a lot of fans watching this fight, and it’ll be a great way for Bakole to introduce himself to the U.S. public.
Anderson’s Attempt to Mask Fear
“I saw he’s scared. He can’t take me on Saturday night. I saw he’s afraid,” said Martin Bakole to Title Sports Network when asked what he saw in Jared Anderson’s eyes during their face-off on Tuesday at the grand arrivals in Los Angeles.
Anderson did a good job of disguising his fear by laughing and clowning when he was on stage with Bakole on Tuesday. It looked like Anderson was acting, trying to cover up his worry, because he knows he’s got a guy in front of him who could ruin his career on Saturday night.
If Anderson loses to Bakole, all the money he hoped to get fighting Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, and Oleksandr Usyk will disappear.
“His eyes speak everything. I’m ready to take everything he brings on Saturday,” Bakole continued about Anderson. “By knockout. If he has a big heart, he’ll survive and I’ll give him punishment on point.’
Jared did look a little antsy when he was on stage with Bakole. It’s like he realizes what he’s up against after five years as a pro. Top Rank has been matching Anderson against lesser competition and is seemingly hesitant to put him in with someone who could wreck his development.
Some fans believe that Turki Alalshikh is the one that chose Martin Bakole as Jared’s opponent for this card. If it were up to Top Rank, he’d likely continue fighting guys like Jerry Forrest, Andriy Rudenko, and Jeremiah Karpency.
“I think early. Before four or five. I train hard in the gym and I’m ready. This fight means a lot to me because I have to sell myself in America,” said Bakole.
If Bakole knocks out Anderson in this fight, it will be a massive blow to Top Rank because they’ve put in all that work protecting him all these years from the harsh life of competing with the killers in the division’s top tier.
However, promoters can only shield their fighters for so long before they must put in with the general population and see how long they can handle it. Ideally, Top Rank should have tested Anderson years ago to find out if he was worth keeping on because they could have saved themselves the trouble of isolating him.
“In the UK, everyone knows Martin Bakole, but now, in America, I want American fans because this is a big world of boxing. I’m calling everyone. They’re always avoiding me, but I’m ready for everyone,” said Bakole.
Fans in the UK aren’t that familiar with Bakole because he’s not fought anyone talented, and we still might not know much about him after Saturday. Anderson isn’t good enough to find out if Bakole has talent.
Jared Anderson: A Hype Job?
“Jared Anderson, everyone has been raving and talking about him. Top Rank has done a good job of building him up by putting him in with opponents he can beat,” said Teddy Atlas on his YouTube channel. “He hasn’t been tested.
Atlas doesn’t say who these people are that are “raving” about Jared Anderson because if he’d had his ears to the ground, he’d know by now that fans view him as a hype job. After watching him struggle against Charles Martin and Ryad Merhy, fans learned all they needed to know about Anderson.
“They haven’t put him with anyone really risky, really competitive yet. I’m not saying that he should have been put in with someone risky to the point where he would lose, but instead of putting him in with fights are 90-10, 80-20, 70-30, I think to develop a guy, you got to put him in a 60-40 fight or 55-45 fight. They [Top Rank] haven’t done that [for Jared Anderson],” said Atlas.
Top Rank’s Protection of Anderson
Surely, Atlas should have gotten a clue as to why Top Rank hasn’t matched Jared Anderson against any live bodies by now. It’s pretty obvious. They’ve seen that he’s flawed and can’t take a punch.
All you have to do is watch how Anderson was staggered twice by 38-year-old Charles Martin to know why Top Rank has been reluctant to put him in with anyone with even a sliver of talent. They know what will happen if Anderson is matched tough, and they’re trying to avoid it for as long as possible.
Top Rank is likely holding onto Jared to either put him in a cash-out against Anthony Joshua or Tyson Fury or wait until those guys retire to have him pick up the fragmented titles. If that’s the game, I don’t think it’s going to work because Anderson won’t be able to capture the belts if he has to face someone halfway decent.
“For some reason, Turki Alalshikh has some real interest in Jared Anderson to the point where he put him on this card, and he hired a new trainer, SugarHill Steward. He got him to train him. I don’t know what Jared Anderson has. There are others out there in the same category,” said Atlas.
Hiring SugarHill may not help Anderson unless he wants to learn how to rough up his opponents and lean on them. That seems to be SugarHill’s main contribution for Tyson Fury since he took over as his trainer years ago.
SugarHill isn’t a good fit for Anderson, who doesn’t like getting hit and has a Shakur-esque style to his game, which involves a lot of boxing and avoidance of pain. For Anderson to change under SugarHill’s guidance, he must go through a Vulcan mind meld and be hypnotized to become an aggressive, roughhouse fighter for which he physically isn’t designed.
Again, Jared’s chin is too weak to use SugarHill’s Kronk gym style of fighting, and he’ll get knocked out repeatedly if he attempts to fight that way. Look at Tyson Fury. He lost his last fight and should have been beaten in his previous one against Francis Ngannou, and that’s with SugarHill as his coach. He’s messed him all up.
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