Bakole “punished” for Anderson upset?

Paulie Malignaggi believes heavyweight Martin Bakole should have been reinstated for Turki Al-Shiek’s booking in Riyadh after upsetting previously undefeated Jared Anderson on August 3 in Los Angeles, California.

Malignaggi says the fight was clearly for Anderson (17-1, 15 KOs) and not Bakole (21-1, 16 KOs) because he wasn’t invited to return 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 be the next great American heavyweight, replacing the aging Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. Bakole spoiled things by destroying Jared in a three-knockdown performance, and his career is now on shaky ground.

Riyadh cards need higher standards for those who fight on them because too many fighters don’t belong. For example, the December 21st card only had one good fighter on the undercard, Serhii Bohachuk, and the rest was terrible.

Bakole deserved to be in the main event challenging unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk more than old, bearded, washed-up Tyson Fury.

There is no going back to Riyadh

“You’re talking about the Jared Anderson-Bakole fight. That fight was about Jared Anderson. In the end it was free for Martin Bakole,” said Paulie Malignaggi Probok TVtalking about Jared Anderson’s loss to Martin Bacole on the Aug. 3 Turki Al-Shieh card in Los Angeles.

“We can say, looking back, that it wasn’t about Bakole because no one returned Bakole. I feel like he was treated unfairly. They should have returned it. It was kind of a free for Jared Anderson that turned into a free for Bakole, and now he’s getting penalized for it. I feel that Bakole should be brought back.

“If you’re going to do this, there has to be a standard set.” There are a lot of positive things. I wouldn’t say that’s a criticism. “I would say it’s constructive criticism in a way, because there’s so much to praise about what’s going on there (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia),” Malignaggi said.

It appears as though Bakole was punished for defeating A-side fighter Jared Anderson. However, Matchroom and Queensberry do not promote Bakole, the two promotional companies that Turki uses as a source for fighters to fill their season tickets in Riyadh. If Bakole had been promoted to one of those companies, he might have been reinstated for the December 21 ticket.

“At the same time, there are things that can be done better, and you want to see the sport and the fighters grow.” “Some of it is knowing when to overcompensate 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 hype jobs, local people or older guys over the hill. We see Tyson Fury and Anthony getting paid ridiculous amounts of money despite being washed up.

It would be better for the sport if the previous premiers would retire and Turki would say no to promoters who try to pack 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 have never heard of before and hopefully will never hear of again.