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Mike Coppinger, ESPN Boxing Insider
LOS ANGELES — Martin Bakole scored a devastating fifth-round TKO victory over Jared Anderson on Saturday at BMO Stadium to end his run as America’s top heavyweight hope.
It was clear in the opening round Anderson was in for a difficult night. A textbook right uppercut from Bakole (21-1, 16 KOs) put the American heavyweight down for the first time in his career.
Anderson (17-1, 15 KOs) fought back valiantly in Round 3, deploying his jab from both stances as he sought to stave off Bakole, a 6-foot-6, 284-pounder from Congo by way of Scotland. Anderson’s low left hand invited Bakole to deliver clubbing right hands that met the mark.
By the fifth round, the closing sequence had begun: Bakole hammered Anderson with a left uppercut, followed by a straight right that sent him crashing to the mat with his hand dangling from the apron.
“I told you from the beginning I’m a machine,” said Bakole, 31.
The machine pushed Anderson back to the ropes time and again. He delivered a left, followed by a right hand that produced the third knockdown of the fight. Anderson wasn’t responding with punches as Bakole continued to unload with a flurry of powerful shots that prompted the referee to stop the fight at 2:07 of Round 5.
“I came here to work,” said Bakole, who was fighting in the U.S. for the first time. “This is what I do for my people in Congo, this is what I do for Scotland. … I’m here to take over. I want to be No. 1. No one wants to fight me. But with His Excellency [Turki Alalshikh] I can get any fight I want.”
Bakole entered the ring rated No. 10 by ESPN at heavyweight. He was coming off a fourth-round TKO of gatekeeper Carlos Takam in December in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Anderson was ESPN’s No. 8 heavyweight. The athletic switch-hitter showed promise in several ESPN main events, but mostly feasted on hand-picked competition outside of last summer’s decision win over Charles Martin, a former heavyweight titleholder. The fight against Bakole represented a massive step-up in competition, the first litmus test of Anderson’s career.
“I made some of the same mistakes I been making,” said Anderson, who often pulls straight back with his hands down. “I’m going home to my daughter at the end of the day, that’s what I’m worried about. You win some, you lose some. … Hats off to him, I lost. … He was strong as s—.”