By Ian Aldous: Randall ‘The Knockout King’ Bailey (45-8) is about to embark on another chapter of his career at the grand age of forty. He’s set to fight in South Korea on October 4th after signing an exclusive promotional contract with Andy Kim and his South-Korean based, AK Promotions. His opponent and a venue are yet to be announced. Last week he took some time to talk with me over the phone after a day of training.
Bailey is a veteran of the game and has fought in Canada, Puerto Rico and multiple times on European soil, so fighting away from home is something he’s certainly not afraid of. But the idea of traveling and competing in Asia is something we see very few Stateside pugilists take on. It was something that Bailey couldn’t wait to do. “Well, my manager (Si Stern) had been telling me that he’d been working on it for a while and it was just a matter of time before Andy (AK Promotions) and my manager came up with a significant game plan and I was all aboard!” He continued “I’m very excited and looking forward to coming out there.”
In the original press release, Andy Kim showed himself to be delighted with his newest signing. “Bailey will be an instant attraction here locally with his style of fighting and having been a two-division world champion, it won’t be long before he is contending once again for a world title.”
He won’t be completely upping sticks and moving to live in South Korea though, he’ll continue to train in the U.S and he hopes to be out there “at least seven days before the fight”. Orlando Cueller has been training Bailey since January and will resume as his head trainer. His first fight under Cueller was at junior-middleweight and saw a second round knockout of Gundrick King, but he won’t be competing at that weight on October 4th. “No, my next fight will be at 147lbs. My last fight was at junior-middleweight, it was just a trial run and I felt good there but my natural (fighting weight) is at welterweight.”
One of the career highlights thus far of ‘The Knockout King’ unfolded on June 9th 2012 when he brutally stopped Mike Jones for the IBF welterweight world championship on the Pacquiao vs. Bradley 1 undercard. At the time, Jones was undefeated and being groomed for big things – but a trademark Randall Bailey knockout win took all that away. “That was tremendous, that was a wild night. I knew going into the fight that I had the power to knock him out and it was just him sitting still long enough for me to catch him with the punch to knock him out.”
The following title defence was supposed to be an entertaining one in which he was dethroned by Devon Alexander. It seemed that Randall had difficulty pulling the trigger and let the belt drift away from him. It proved to be the beginning of the end for himself and his trainer at the time, John David Jackson. “It’s like I had the same problem going into the Mike Jones fight. I think it was time for me and my trainer at the time to separate. I chose to stay with him through the good and the bad – and it cost me.”
I asked Randall about his relative inactivity since 2012 (two fights in just under three years) and I sensed some ire in his voice. His ratio of thirty-eight knockouts in forty-five wins has clearly hindered his ability to find opponents. “Guys just not willing to fight me, you know. I been offered a lot of fights but when I say yes and it gets back to them – they call back and say no. I don’t understand. These guys out here claiming they the best and the next big this and next that, but when my name is mentioned for them to fight me – they say no.”
“I’m saying though if you got guys out there that calling themselves ‘The Truth’ and ‘One Time’, it’s like come on now, it don’t make sense to me. I call myself the ‘Knockout King’ because I am the king of knocking people out. Let’s get in the ring and let me see if I can knock you out, that is my thing.” I’ll let you readers figure out who he’s referring to when he says the nickname ‘One Time’! Despite his imminent return to welterweight – one fight I’d personally love to see would be Bailey vs. James Kirkland. He seemed to agree “I think that would be a pretty good fight at 154lbs you know, but I don’t know what James’ situation is right now.”
Throughout the native Floridian’s nineteen year career, he’s been fighting at weights close to Floyd Mayweather and recently, Manny Pacquiao. But the elusive payday against one of those two megastars has never materialized. “Only time my name was mentioned to fight Floyd Mayweather was when he was at 135lbs and I was at 140lbs.” I also asked for his thoughts on Mayweather’s apparent retirement fight against the surprising challenger, Andre Berto and he appeared more interested in it than a lot of fans. “I think it’s a good fight for him to go out with a bang. I think he’s going to beat Berto to a pulp and me myself – I wouldn’t mind seeing it.”
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