Teddy Atlas felt that Martin Bakole was not going to be the big test that Jared Anderson needed.
How wrong it proved at the weekend on the undercard of Terence Crawford’s world title win against Israil Madrimov. Congolese heavyweight Bakole showed his strength by knocking down the American heavyweight hopeful three times on the way to a fifth-round stoppage win.
Speaking on The Fight, Atlas admitted he got his assessment of Bakole wrong but also pointed out the mistakes Anderson made in his first loss.
“Anderson didn’t move his head, he got hit with the uppercut, he timed him.
The only thing Bakole did wrong, which is crazy I would bring up anything he did wrong cause he’s a tremendous person and I hope he becomes a heavyweight world champion, that’s how much he impressed me and how much I want to apologise for being wrong about him, but the only thing I seen him doing wrong is there were rounds Anderson was trying to steal because of the way he was coming back at the end of the rounds.
But it wasn’t to be. He was too easy to hit, too easy to be caught.”
He then praised Anderson’s heart for staying in the contest as long as he did.
Bakole was ready for everything and it was just a tremendous execution of a fight plan. He landed so many big shots and if Anderson didn’t have the heart he had then he would be been gone a couple of rounds earlier.
