Why can't Bakhodir Jalolov get a meaningful pro heavyweight fight?

Don’t get the jalolov hype. Like you said, pro is a different sport. Wake me up when he does something decent as a pro fighter.

 

There two ways of looking at it, either his promoters, who have the experience, money and connections to get better fights don't care about promoting him and so Jalalov has been fighting as an amateur on the side to stay sharp and not stagnate like Hrgovic did or he really doesn't care all that much about being a pro and just uses it to supplement his income.

Now that he's a two time Olympic champion, the time is for him to step up, he's never going to have more eyes on him for his next fight, he has enough experience as a pro now to take that next step. Question is will he or will his promoters want to. Honestly I don't see why Top Rank now wouldn't push him, everyone else in their stable has been exposed.

 

Maybe he should actually take pro boxing seriously and earn himself a way up the ranks?

I know he's hyped hard, but he's had several pro fights and not fought a proper journeyman even - he's only fought jobbers and complete no marks...

Great amateur pedigree, no question - but should he really get to skip the levels as a pro? I'm not convinced - it's not just that he's not super marketable it's that he's also super unproven as a pro.

 

I'm curious what you regard as a "meaningful fight" for him...

As a pro, basically anything above jobbers and literal part time taxi drivers is a step up - one might even call it a "meaningful" step up.


Does any kind of Amateur legacy grant any fighter the right to earn a shot at even gatekeeper level fighters without fighting a recognisable journeyman first?

Maybe, more than anything else, he needs to actually try and climb the ladder - and fans need to stop expecting him to be hoisted right to the top straight away?

 

I don't hate him but he already won a gold. It seems like grown men bullying younger guys in the Olympics. Kind of like Savon and Stevenson beating up on 20 year old's at 30. but they were restricted from turning pro. Jalolov has so much talent; would be a shame for him to throw it away.

 

There are potential opponents aplenty, but he doesn't seem to want a big fight and has settled for low-level opponents...

 

There probably are not any/many managers of contenders who would accept Jalolov as an opponent. Maybe Bakole's team would fight him because Bakole apparently has a hard time finding fights too? That would be an interesting fight.

It would take a big money promotion to be able to pay a contender to fight Jalolov. Managers are not going to want their fighter in the ring with Jalolov who is 6-7, 250 pounds, a southpaw, powerful, and has had one of the best amateur careers ever. It's not the manager's job to find exciting fights, the manager should try to make his fighter the most money while taking the least risk. Jalolov would be a huge risk. It's going to take a promoter, (who should be trying to arrange great fights), with deep pockets to get a contender to fight Jalolov.

 

He should be put in against the likes of Dillian Whyte who's cannon fodder but a bit of a name. He'd bludgeon him but Whyte would never take the fight.

 

Couldn't let the word "risk" pass without tying it to the word "reward".

Jalolov looks good at amateur level, but he brings very little to the table in either cash/draw or in terms of resume enhancement potential.

Because his pro resume is 100% jobbers, and because amateur success doesn't guarantee professional success, any win over him could (and quite likely would) be dismissed as not particularly meaningful.

Then you have the fact that he's not bringing the levels of attention and money to the table to make up for this... And is it any surprise nobody would be interested in wasting months of a contenders time preparing to fight him?


He needs to build up - not skip the queue straight to the top... Start fighting journeymen, look good doing it and then move onto gatekeepers and eventually contenders (if he makes it that far).

 

Because he’s not american, and the only reason the saudis are giving big money to usyk, fury and joshua is because they are obligated to because they are the top ranked heavyweights. If anderson beat bakole they would be promoting him all over in a huge way because everybody in boxing is desperate for an american heavyweight champion. If jalolov was born here he would have hundreds of millions of dollars alone just off of endorsements from american companies.

 

He is top five even now

 

Umm... And because they'd proved they should be ranked up there.

Jalolov hasn't.

It would've been a great step up for Anderson, yes - and beating solid gatekeepers like Bakole at a young age is a good sign you're going to be something for a long time... It's obvious why that fighter would get pushed - but it didn't happen.

Jalolov... Hasn't even beaten his first journeyman as a pro.

He'd have been much better known, yes... And that would've made him a bigger draw and made it possible to climb the ladder a bit quicker.

But he'd still have had to work through the levels like everyone else.

I truly cannot understand people who think Jalolov should be getting massive fights straight off when that's not how it works - he has to prove himself by taking incrementally better fights and making a name for himself at professional level.

 

This is just ridiculous.

Great amateur career, no question...

But his pro resume is 100% jobbers - there's absolutely no way anyone should be ranking him top 5.

Heck, on resume he's probably not even top 50.

This hype where fighters get assumed to be special with next to zero pro achievements to their names is ridiculous.

 

Because he's not really interested in meaningful Pro fights?

 

Yeah... at this point, at pro level, you could say Ngannou's resume is more impressive simply due to the performance against Fury.