Paulie Malignaggi believes heavyweight Martin Bakole should have been brought back for Turki Al-Shiekh’s card in Riyadh after he upset 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 hasn’t been invited back despite scoring an impressive knockout in fifth round.
Overlooked and underrated
Anderson, 25, was a highly hyped fighter groomed by his promoters at Top Rank to become the next great American heavyweight to replace 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.
The Riyadh cards need higher standards for those who fight on them because not too many fighters belong. For example, the December 21st card only had one good fighter on the undercard, Serhii Bohachuk, and the rest were terrible.
Bakole deserved more to be in the main event challenging unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk than an old, bearded, washed-up Tyson Fury.
No Riyadh left
“You talk about the Jared Anderson-Bakole fight. That fight was about Jared Anderson. It ended up being a freebie for Martin Bakole,” Paulie Malignaggi told Probox TV, talking about Jared Anderson’s loss to Martin Bakole at Turki Al -Shiekh’s card on August 3rd in Los Angeles.
“We can see in hindsight that it wasn’t about Bakole because nobody brought Bakole back. I feel like he’s been unfairly treated. He should have been brought back. It was kind of a freebie for Jared Anderson who became a freebie for Bakole and now he is being punished for it I feel Bakole should be brought back.
“If you’re going to do this, there has to be a standard set. There’s a lot of positives. I wouldn’t say it’s criticism. I’d say it’s constructive criticism in some ways because there’s so much to praise about , what has taken place there [Riyadh, Saudi Arabia],” Malignaggi said.
It appears that Bakole has been punished for punching A-side fighter Jared Anderson. However, Matchroom and Queensberry do not promote Bakole, two of the promotional companies that Turki uses as his source of fighters to fill his Riyadh season card. If Bakole was promoted by one of these companies, he could have been brought back to the December 21st card.
“At the same time, there are things that can be done better and you want to see this sport and the fighters grow. Part of that is knowing when to overcompensate and when not to overcompensate,” Malignaggi said.
Many of the fighters on Turki’s card are the ones recommended by the British promoters and many of them are hype jobs, scrubs at home or older guys over the hill. We see Tyson Fury & Anthony being paid ridiculous sums despite being washed up.
It would be better for the sport if the former prime guys were phased out and Turki would say no to promoters trying to pack the cards with non-world class fighters who don’t belong on big cards.
The recent December 21st card was filled with limited fighters that fans outside of the UK had never heard of before and hopefully will never hear of again.