Dan Rafael reports that two-time Olympic gold medalist Bakhodir Jalolov will meet Solomon Dacres in the co-main event of Daniel Dubois’ October 17th rematch with Fabio Wardley.
Jalolov (17-0, 15 KO) made the quarters at Rio 2016 before losing to Joe Joyce, then ran the table at both Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, facing only rare resistance along the way. Following that second medal, he claimed to have retired from Olympic boxing and dedicated himself to the pro game, but that hasn’t really played out
in practice; he’s been fighting for money since 2018 and we’ve yet to see an inflection point in terms of competition.
If he is just treading water until LA 2028, the portents aren’t great for a Teofilo Stevenson-esque third gold. Two of his last three fights have gone the distance and the third, a corner stoppage of the eminently stoppable Agron Smakichi on the first Dubois-Wardley show, stank out the joint.
Dacres (10-1, 3 KO) probably clears that extremely low bar of “best pro opponent.” He got blown to bits in 80 seconds by David Adeleye in 2024, but did bounce back last year with a wide shutout of then-unbeaten Vladyslav Sirenko.
He was slated to face Jared Anderson earlier this year before “The Real Big Baby” withdrew on late notice.
