Arum: Turki Alalshikh Circumvented Legality To Make Jared Anderson-Martin Bakole Bout

Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum has revealed that Saudi Arabia’s Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority, Turki Alalshikh, circumvented his authority as Jared Anderson’s promoter to directly make this past August’s, ultimately disastrous, bout with Martin Bakole.

When the heavyweight prospect signed on to fight the heavy-handed contender Bakole, it was lauded as a brave, almost audacious step forward for the Toledo, Ohio native. In many savvy corners of the boxing world, however, the move was regarded as ill-conceived and downright foolish.

The revelation from Arum explains a lot regarding that dubious matchmaking decision.

The 24-year-old Anderson had shown promise and all the raw tools needed to be something special in the boxing glamour division, but he had yet to put it all together and had displayed wavering degrees of focus in his last several fights. He was, most definitely, not a finished product and, as many felt, not enough of a finished product to go after one of the top dogs near the top of the rankings.

As things turned out, the cynics were right and Jared got eaten up by his Congolese-by-way-of-Scotland opponent, dropped three times in the five-round TKO loss on the August 3 Terence Crawford-Israil Madrimov undercard in Los Angeles.

“I want everybody to know that it wasn’t us,” Arum explained on Dan Rafael’s ‘Fight Freaks Unite’ podcast. “His Excellency Turki Alalshikh went right to the fighter and made this proposal for money that the fighter had never seen before and picked as his opponent, Bakole who is a tremendous puncher and Jared prepared to deal with a guy who couldn’t move very much but was a great puncher and he never fought a guy like that. So the fact he got taken apart and got knocked out was not surprising.

“So don’t put it on my matchmakers. We were against that fight. Again, when they wave money at these kids, they insist on taking it. We could have gone to court to prevent it, but we don’t do those kind of things. We let the fight go ahead. We made our money from the fight but we let that fight go ahead and it was the stupidest fight Jared could have taken.”

The illegal tampering with the Top Rank contract player came ahead of further tampering that saw Alalshikh advocate for Anderson to bring in trainer “Sugar Hill” Steward prior to the Bakole fight.

“I want to thank Jared Anderson for taking my advice and seeking out to coach and trainer Sugar Hill to train him for his upcoming fight,” Alalshikh proudly tweeted after the coaching decision was finalized.

On paper, Anderson-Bakole appeared to be a good fight. Anderson was even a slight betting favorite coming into the bout. Some will, correctly, argue that making good fights is good for the sport. However, a “good” fight can’t be made when one of the combatants just isn’t ready for that fight yet.

Boxing tends to move too slow at times, but there’s generally a method to the madness as a good matchmaker will fill up a young fighter’s resume with contests that not only build his public profile, but also season him as a boxer.

Super fans with truckloads of cash and zero direct knowledge of the sport, like Alalshikh, wouldn’t necessarily be the smartest voices when it comes to career building.

All of this begs the question of whether these “partnerships” with Turki Alalshikh and the Saudis are worth the short-term payouts. Arum, for instance, got his cut of Anderson’s reported $660K purse, but he likely lost out on years of Jared Anderson business that could’ve resulted in multiple eight or nine-figure purses. Why would promoters and managers work with someone who’s going to undercut and fully circumvent their authority whenever he feels like it, frequently to the detriment of their own long-term business plans?

In the specific case of Alalshikh, there’ve been other reports of him skirting around legality to offer fights directly to the fighters. Notably, there was his bizarre offer for David Benavidez to move down to 160 for a Terence Crawford fight.

Jared Anderson may or may not be back as a big-time prospect. His constant talk of leaving the business, combined with the crushing loss after this kind of one-time payout, put his future in doubt.

Whatever the case, Alalshikh’s behind-the-scenes (and behind-the-back) dealings as an apparent wannabe boxing dictator have cost Arum and Top Rank (and Anderson). Expect more tampering and more losses to come.

Just a moment, before you leave…Boxing needs independent media, like The Boxing Tribune, to compete against the major media sites, which are fully owned by promotional companies and other industry interests. As we build our profile, donations will help operating costs and give us a budget to hire more full-time writers to further provide quality boxing coverage. Please consider a small donation and click on the button below. Thanks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTdYtb6Rc2Y