By Craig Daly: Top Rank has signed 2020 Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist Bakhodir Jalolov to a multi-year deal that gives the promotional company another future potential champion.
The tall 6’6″ Uzbek Jalolov (12-0, 12 KOs) turned professional in 2018, but his career didn’t take off with the promoter he’d signed with. Jalolov will be making his debut with Top Rank this summer.
The 6’7″ southpaw Jalolov has the size, power, and boxing skills to immediately become a major player in the division, as long as he’s moved against quality opposition.
With Jalolov’s previous promoters, he was languishing, being wasted by facing poor opposition. He should have been fighting contenders by this stage of his five-year professional career.
Now with Top Rank, the 28-year-old Jalolov is with a company that should be able to get him the fights that he needs to take his career to the next level.
Jalolov looked exceptional in the 2020 Olympics, beating Richard Torrez in the gold medal match to win the tournament.
For the tall 6’6″ southpaw Jalolov, it was the second time that he’d beaten Torrez after viciously knocking him out in the second round in the 2019 AIBA World Boxing Championships in Yekaterinburg, Russia,
It would be interesting to see Jalolov go up against the heavily hyped American heavyweight Jared Anderson, who promoter Bob Arum believes is heading toward superstardom.
“Bakhodir Jalolov, an undefeated heavyweight who won an Olympic gold medal in 2021, has signed a multiyear promotional deal with Top Rank,” said Mike Coppinger to ESPN.
Jalolov (12-0, 12 KOs) joins a stable that includes undefeated young heavyweights Jared Anderson and Richard Torrez Jr. The 6-foot-7, 250-pound southpaw is one of the best heavyweight prospects in the world.”
Jalolov made a lot of improvements in his game from 2016 to 2020. He lost to Joe Joyce in 2016 and didn’t react well to the pressure the ‘Juggernaut’ was putting on him in that fight.
Jalolov had filled his 6’7″ frame three years later, adding muscle and increasing his punching power. It was an entirely different fighter than the one that had lost to Joyce.
Top Tank needs to move Jalolov quickly because it would be a shame if he spends years fighting lower-tier opposition because he’s got the talent to fight the best in the heavyweight division right now.
In Jalolov’s last fight in November, Jalolov stopped Curtis Harper in the fourth round.
In Jalolov’s previous six fights, he beat these obscure heavyweights:
– Jack Mulowayi
– Kamil Sokołowski
– Julio Cesar Calimeno
– Kristaps Zutis
– Wilfredo Leal
– Brendan Barrett
