Heavyweight Martin Bakole (21-1, 16 KOs) dealt a serious blow to the career of the hyped American Jared Anderson (17-1, 15 KOs), handing him his first defeat in a brutal fifth-round knockout on Saturday night at the BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.
Bakole’s performance was the fight of the night, as he showed that he had too much brute strength for the young 24-year-old phenom Anderson from the get-go in round one.
Anderson was knocked down once in the first and twice more in the fifth. Referee Jerry Cantu stopped the fight at 2:07 of the fifth.
How Bakole destroyed Anderson was similar to how Sonny Liston mowed down Floyd Patterson in September 1962. Bakole had too much power for Anderson, who was no match for him last night.
Anderson’s Early Struggles
In the first round, Bakole, 31, knocked Anderson down after hurting him with an uppercut. Anderson went down hard on the canvas after getting hit with three additional thudding blows from Bakole.
Little time was left in the round, which saved Anderson from being knocked out, but the damage was done. Anderson looked like he never fully recovered from the first-round knockdown, as he was bludgeoned by Bakole in rounds 2, 3, 4, and 5.
Anderson looked at times in coming back from the first round, throwing speedy combinations, and landing a lot of shots to Bakole’s midsection.
The youngster targeted Bakole’s body because he looked like he was carrying a lot of excess weight. However, Bakole was unaffected by the body shots and kept coming forward, landing his hard Sonny Liston-like shots to Anderson’s head.
The Ending
Despite Anderson’s brave effort to get back in the fight, he looked beaten by the fifth round. Blood leaked from Anderson’s mouth, and he had a dazed, hurt look on his face by that point in the fight.
Smelling blood, Bakole went for the finish with a tiger-like attack, knocking Anderson down twice with crunching shots to the head. The punches weren’t thrown with a lot of speed, but the power in them was concussive and more than Anderson could take.
The referee halted the contest after the second knockdown in the fifth. Anderson was in no condition to continue fighting, even if he had wanted to.
“I made some of the same mistakes I’ve been making,” Anderson admitted. “You win some, you lose some. Hats off to him. He did his thing. I lost, so I’ll go back to the gym.”
