Jared Anderson will head into his August 3rd fight against Martin Bakole with a new coach following a Twitter/X post by General Entertainment Authority (GEA) chairman Turki Alalshikh that revealed Anderson had found a new trainer for his next fight; American trainer SugarHill Steward, nephew of deceased legendary trainer Emmanuel Steward and head trainer of former WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury. Anderson and Bakole will be fighting on the undercard of the August 3rd Crawford-Madrimov show.
Prior to this change, Jared Anderson (17-0, 15 KO’s) had been working under longtime head trainer Darrie Riley and USA Boxing assistant coach Kay Koroma, but appears to have either parted ways with his team to join SugarHill Steward’s stable of fighters or the young heavyweight contender has added Steward to his coaching team.
Sugarhill Steward, the successor to the Kronk style of boxing developed by his uncle Emmanuel Steward, is mostly known for his coaching of Tyson Fury (34-1-1, 24 KO’s), leading the British heavyweight to four victories over his past five fights. As the head of the Kronk Gym, which has seen a number of past great heavyweights be tutored under Emmanuel Steward, SugarHill Steward appears to have the knowledge and tools necessary to mold Anderson into a fearsome heavyweight contender―if not champion.
The motivation for this change can very much be attributed to GEA chairman Turki Alalshikh who admitted in his own post to have urged Anderson to take on Steward as his coach.
“I want to thank Jared Anderson for taking my advise and seeking out to coach and trainer Sugar Hill to train him for his upcoming fight.” Alalshikh stated on Twitter/X.
The Saudi Arabian minister had not been shy of his interest in Jared Anderson prior to this trainer change, having earlier this year attempted to arrange a match between Anderson and Deontay Wilder (43-4-1, 42 KO’s) for the August 3rd card. However, this potential match-up was dependent on several factors including Wilder defeating Zhilei Zhang (27-2-1, 22 KO’s) on June 1st―which he failed to do.
There was also the possibility of Wilder facing Anthony Joshua (28-3, 25 KO’s) if he made it past Zhang, but the technical knockout (TKO) loss he suffered on June 1st has resulted in Congelese heavyweight contender Martin Bakole (20-1, 15 KO’s) stepping in to face Jared Anderson on August 3rd.
The influence of Turki Alalshikh appears to be spreading rapidly with Anderson reportedly taking up Steward as his trainer on the behest of Alalshikh himself. Time will tell whether this partnership will work out with the two having only recently banded together, and given Anderson’s next bout will occur roughly two months from now, it will be interesting to see how [or if] Anderson will improve under the tutelage of a new trainer in a relatively short amount of time.
