Report/Photos by Boxing Bob Newman at ringside
2020 Olympic Super Heavyweight Gold medal winner Bakhodir Jalolov looked to make it 11 for 11 with 11 KOs against gritty Belgian (by way of Democratic Republic of the Congo) Jack Mulowayi.
The bout was an ugly affair for much of the going. A point was taken away from Jalolov in the fourth for excessive holding when ref Benjy Esteves could not break the two. As the bell rang ending the sixth, Jalolov landed a big right, dropping Mulowayi along the ropes. It looked as if the KO streak would continue. Then, Mulowayi appeared the spoiler and frustrated Jalolov to survive the seventh. Midway through the eighth and final round a titanic left crushed Big Jack and down he went, head crashing loudly to the canvas. Esteves waved off the count and summoned the ringside physicians. Mulowayi rose under his own power after a few scary minutes. The time was 1:20 of the eighth. Jalolov improves to 11-0, 11 KOs, while Mulowayi falls to 10-3-1, 5 KOs.
“I’m feeling really good about the performance,” said the 27-year-old Jalolov. “The opponent was at a really good level and a great fighter. He was a really tough, durable guy. I landed some big shots on him and he can take a punch.
“I thought I was going to stop him at the end of the sixth round when I dropped him, but the referee let him continue and the round was over. I thought that was the time. But I had to wait until the final round. I’m happy that I got the stoppage. I feel like I hurt him three or four times.”
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BJ is a boring fighter who basically just has a left hand
Ok now it’s time to set up the competition and fight news level me up.
There was no doubt who would win this fight but Jalolov did not impress me.
More can be expected from an Olympic champion, world champion and multiple Asian champion after four years as a professional boxer.
Jalolov is ranked 73rd in the heavyweight boxing of Boxrec.
Something more challenging.
Who cares.
Lanky, awkward, ugly, no boxing skills at all, any top 50 heavyweight would knock him out cold.
Jalalov needs a lot of work, but he’ll be 28 in a month which is pretty young as far as heavyweights go, so he has the time.
I’d most want to see him in with Makhmudov, but there’s no way that happens. More realistically – maybe Takam??
Helenius? Nobody else seems to want to fight him. I find his inability to get a big fight strange because nothing about him seems that great to me. A win for either guy would instantly push their name up the ladder.
I would think at Helenius’ age he’s probably wanting a big payday (maybe Wilder?) and I don’t if he could get that fighting Jalolov. He does seem to be in a stuck position in his career right now though and he’s 38. A lot of those PBC guys have stuff scheduled, even Kownacki and he’s just kinda sitting there.
Just shows again, many times it happens that good Olympic fighters do not necessarily make good pro boxers. Recently Yoka was also shown how ordinary a fighter he is.
Yoka lost. Jalolov won. And won by knockout in a fight that wasn’t all that close. I don’t think you make any kind of statement about where he’s at based on anything we saw yesterday. He did what he needed to do.
Everybody was also saying how good Yoka was when he was fighting lesser opponents. Hope I am wrong about Jalolov, watched this fight and he looks very ordinary like Yoka did. Just has a bigger punch. Let’s see.