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Mike Coppinger, ESPN Boxing Insider
LOS ANGELES — Martin Bakole scored a devastating fifth-round knockout 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 that Anderson, who closed as a -210 favorite on ESPN BET, 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.
Bakole, who is the younger brother of former cruiserweight titleholder Junior Makabu, suffered his lone defeat to Michael Hunter by 10th-round TKO in October 2018. Hunter was ringside Saturday at BMO Stadium and stepped into the ropes afterward to set up a potential rematch.
Anderson was ESPN’s No. 8 heavyweight. The athletic switch-hitter showed promise in several ESPN main events, but mostly feasted on handpicked 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—.”
Ruiz, Miller fight to controversial majority draw
Former heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz and Jarrell Miller battled to a controversial majority draw on the undercard.
Miller won 116-112 on one scorecard with two 114-114 tallies to make it a draw. However, Miller (26-1-2, 22 KOs) appeared to control the action enough to earn the nod on all three scorecards.
The 305-pounder from Brooklyn, New York, applied nonstop pressure and threw with volume. Ruiz (35-2-1, 22 KOs) prefers to fight in the same manner but was forced to box off the back foot in the face of Miller’s pressure. Ruiz also appeared exhausted over the second half of the bout. He revealed a gruesome hand injury afterward that he said hampered him since Round 5.
“My f—ing hand, oh my gosh. … You can see the freaking bone here,” said Ruiz, 34. “It bothered me a lot, I was hitting him with those big right hands.”
The bout was Ruiz’s first since September 2022, when he defeated Luis Ortiz.
“I’d love to do a rematch, let’s do it again,” Ruiz said. “… You got a 300-pounder coming towards me throwing and throwing. I think I did pretty good for a two-year layoff. He’s a strong motherf—er, man. He keeps coming forward and forward.”
Miller, 36, was emotional afterward. He was fighting for the first time since he suffered his first pro defeat, a 10th-round TKO to Daniel Dubois in December.
“I know I did enough,” Miller said. “Effective aggression, clean punching. … Stumbled him a couple times. … We got a California judge, a Nevada judge. We knew we’re coming to his hometown. … I was keeping the pressure and letting my hands go as much as I could. … Boxing’s a dirty game. That’s boxing, you get robbed.”
Alalshikh agreed, saying, “I give it to Miller.”
Miller was set to challenge then-heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in June 2019 before testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance. Ruiz replaced him on short notice and scored one of the biggest upsets in heavyweight championship history with a stoppage win over Joshua. Miller was suspended a second time in 2021 following another positive PED result.
Source: www.espn.com