By Mark Eisner: Heavyweight Jared Anderson (16-0, 15 KOs) scored a fifth round TKO win over the hapless 39-year-old journeyman Andriy Rudenko (35-6, 21 KOs) in a showcase fight on Saturday night at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa,
Referee Gary Ritter stepped in and halted the fight at 1:40 of round five after Anderson unloaded with a barrage of punches against Rudenko, who was shelling up and not throwing anything back.
Anderson, 23, was effective with the body shots that he was landing against a very old, slow, weak & tired Rudenko. By the third round, Rudenko looked exhausted and not in the best shape.
With nothing coming back, Anderson unloaded at will with body shots. It was not interesting to watch, given how overmatched the older fighter Rudenko looked. It was such a mismatch, and not because Anderson is great. It’s more of a case of Rudenko being old & past it.
When Rudenko did throw, he was landing, but he didn’t have any power to make Anderson respect him.
This was not a statement win for Anderson. The way he looked, he’d be in trouble against many of the top contenders in the division. Anderson doesn’t look like a future world champion. He’s more of a top 10 guy.
Bakhodir Jalolov, who fought on the undercard tonight, looks worlds better than Anderson. Top Rank isn’t going to sacrifice Anderson by throwing him in with Jalalov.
Boxing News 24 will give live updates & results below of tonight’s Anderson vs. Rudenko card.
- Heavyweight fringe contender Efe Ajagba (18-1, 13 KOs) defeated previously unbeaten Zhan Kossobutskiy (19-1, 18 KOs) by a fourth round disqualification in the chief support bout. Kossobutskiy DQ’d for hitting the 6’7′ Ajagba low in the fourth. In the replay, it appeared Kossobutskiy took exception with getting hit to the kidneys by Ajagba, who reached around and hit him in the back, which the referee failed to see. When Kossobutskiy paid Ajagba back with a left hand low blow, he was disqualified. In the third round, the referee twice took points away from Kossobutskiy for twice landing low blows. Kossobutskiy seemed to be bothered by the body shots that Ajagbag was landing. Interestingly, Ajagba was landing low blows as well but wasn’t penalized. Of course, he was the A-side.
- Undefeated featherweight Bruce Carrington (9-0, 5 KOs) won a dominant eight round unanimous decision over Angel Contreras (13-7-2, 7 KOs). The judges scored it 80-72, 79-73, and 79-73.
- 2020 Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist Bakhodir Jalolov (13-0, 13 KOs) destroyed Onoriode Ehwarieme (20-3, 19 KOs) by a first round knockout in a scheduled eight round contest. Making his debut for Top Rank, the 29-year-old southpaw dropped Ehwarieme three times with left hands to the head. The referee halted the contest after Jalolov knocked Ehwarieme down for the third time with a sweeping left hand to the head. Ehwarieme didn’t look hurt, but it would have been pointless for the fight to continue because he had no ability to get out of the way of the 6’7″ Jalolov’s powerful left hands, as he couldn’t miss. The time of the stoppage was at 2:06 of round one. Jalolov looked impressive tonight, and it was surprising that Top Rank didn’t include him in the main portion of the card because he’s clearly a better heavyweight than Jared Anderson, Efe Ajagba, and Zhan Kossobutskiy. “Jalolov made very short work of his opponent tonight. He looked very sharp,” said Chris Algieri to ESPN. “You could see right away his vision, his movement, his in & out, and the way he picked his punches. He’s got that massive amateur background, plus he’s got that super heavyweight size, and he’s got a punch. We saw that on display tonight. Looking forward to seeing what this young man can do with the rest of his professional career. I would say so, probably before the end of the fall. He could go shower and fight again as fast as that fight went. Jalolov made very short work of his opponent tonight.” said Algieri about when Jalolov returns to the ring. Top Rank will need to match Jalolov against better opposition if they want to develop him. He has too much experience at the amateur level to be brought along slowly against this type of opposition.
- Middleweight Sona Akale (8-1, 4 KOs) defeated previously unbeaten Nico Ali Walsh (8-1, 5 KOs) by a six round majority decision. The scores were 57-57, 58-56, 58-56.
- Heavyweight prospect Jeremiah Milton (11-0, 7 KOs) defatted Craig Lewis (15-7-1, 8 KOs) by an eight rround unanimous decision. The judges scored it 80-72, 79-72, and 79-72.
- Unbeaten lightweight prospect Abdullah Mason (10-0, 8 KOs) beat Cesar Villarraga (10-8-1,5 KOs) by a one-sided six round unanimous decision. The scores were 60-54, 60-54 and 60-54.
- Welterweight prospect Ablaikhan Zhussupov (4-0, 3 KOs) stopped journeyman Wiston Campos (33-12-6, 19 KOs) in the fifth round. Campos was down in the fourth; his corner threw in the towel in the fifth.
- Light welterweight Charly Suarez (16-0, 9 KOs) beat Yohan Vasquez (25-4, 20 KOs) by a ten round unanimous decision. The judges scored it 98-92, 98-92, 97-93.
U.S. heavyweight prospect/contender Jared Anderson (15-0, 14 KOs) is looking to put in a good performance against the capable Andriy Rudenko (35-6, 21 KOs) in tonight’s Top Rank-promoted event at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa, live on ESPN+. Anderson, 23, has pressure on him to shine after his last outing against Charles Martin a month ago.
The fight that could steal the show from the Anderson-Rudenko main event is the co-feature bout between heavyweight slugger Efe Ajagba (17-1, 13 KOs) and Zhan Kossobutskiy (19-0, 18 KOs).
The 6’7″ Ajagba has the kind of power in his hand to knock out anybody in the division, but he’s also vulnerable in the chin department. Ajagba lost to Frank Sanchez a couple of years ago, and he’s looked like a shell ever since.
Interstingly, Top Rank won’t be including their recent signee, 2020 Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist Bakhodir Jalolov, in his eight round fight against Onoriode Ehwarieme as part of the ESPN broadcast.
The unbeaten 12-0 Jalolov’s fight will be shown live on YouTube at 6:15 p.m. ET. He’s a far better fighter than Jared Anderson, in this writer’s opinion, but he’s not from the U.S. and, thus far, isn’t being given the same red-carpet treatment.
“Jared is coming off a former world champion, Charles Martin, and it was a tough fight,” said Chris Algieri to ProBox TV about Jared Anderson.
“There were a lot of people in the media who were giving him flak about that, which I don’t understand because Charles Martin was a very stiff test, and I think Jared passed it with flying colors.”
For the record, Anderson was staggered twice by Martin and was out on his feet in the tenth. The fight revealed the following flaws in Jared Andersons’s game:
- Gives up real estate too easily
- Shaky punch resistance
- Bad pull-back habit
- Timid at times
- Holds a lot
- Lack of concentration
“Sure, he got rocked [x 2], had a tough fight, and went the distance, but he won’t blow everyone out. Charles Martin was a huge, huge step up. Like I said, a guy that can punch, a former world champion, and he’s also a southpaw. So, I’m not really sure that he’s [Andeerson’s earning the flak that he got for that win,” said Algieri.