JARED ANDERSON will face the toughest test of his career to date when he tackles Martin Bakole on August 3.
The 24-year-old unbeaten heavyweight had been linked to a fight against former WBC champion Deontay Wilder at the BMO Stadium in Los Angeles but that was ruled out after Zhilei Zhang stopped ‘The Bronze Bomber’ by fifth round stoppage last Saturday.
Zhang’s victory contributed to the emphatic 10-0 win for Queensberry over Matchroom in Riyadh during the inaugural 5 vs 5 event in another successful night for Turki Alalshikh, Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority. Alalshikh has now brought together various promoters for his first venture into the American boxing market on August 3 where former undisputed welterweight champion Terence Crawford challenges Israil Madrimov for the WBA super-welterweight title.
Anderson, 17-0 (15 KOs), promoted by Top Rank, takes on Scottish-based Congolese heavyweight Martin Bakole, 20-1 (15 KOs) whose own career is in need of a big fight on a big stage. The 31-year-old is regarded as one of the division’s dark horses and has weighed between 275 and 299lbs in his last three fights which have featured wins over Carlos Takam and Tony Yoka, respectively,
There will likely be a significant weight difference on fight night with Anderson weighing 243, 239 and 251lbs in his last trio of wins against Charles Martin, Andrii Rudenko and Ryad Merhy, respectively. The Ohio-born contender is tipped as a future world champion and is ranked in the top five by the WBC, WBO and IBF while Bakole is currently the WBA number one contender.
Along with Crawford-Madrimov and Anderson-Bakole the August 3 card is stacked from top to bottom with talent. Former heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr returns against Jarrell Miller, newly-crowned WBA super-lightweight titlist Isaac Cruz defends his belt against Jose Valenzuela while Cuban sensations David Morrell (light-heavyweight) and Andy Cruz (lightweight) face Radivoje Kalajdzic and Antonio Moran, respectively. A super-welterweight firefight between Vergsl Ortiz Jr Tim Tszyu was recently called off after it was revealed the cuts Tszyu suffered in his loss to Sebastian Fundora had not healed properly. It remains to be seen whether Ortiz Jr will still feature on the bill.