Jarrell Miller vs. Fred Kassi – results

By Boxing News - 08/20/2016 - Comments

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By Jim Dower: In a disappointing fight, unbeaten heavyweight contender Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller (18-0-1, 16 KOs) defeated 36-year-old high level journeyman Fred Kassi (18-6-1, 10 KOs) by a 3rd round stoppage on Friday night at the outdoor Rhinos Stadium in Rochester, New York.

The fight was stopped after the third round when Kassi complained of having suffered a right hand injury. Even if the fight hadn’t been stopped, Kassi wasn’t going to last long, because he was fighting a stupid fight by backing up to the ropes and letting the near 300 pound Miller unload on him with body shots. Miller was wise not to try and land head shots because Kassi is hard to hit cleanly to the head. The fight really never got going. With the hype and interest in the Miller vs. Kassi fight, it was a buzz-kill to see the fight end like it did with an injury stoppage.

Kassi should have known coming into the fight that with a fighter as big and fat at Miller, his best chance of winning was to stay mobile and not wrest against the ropes. Kassi fought like he was reliving his knockout loss to Amir Mansour from 2014. Kassi made the same mistakes in that fight as he did tonight by backing against the ropes and letting himself get hit.

WBO #7, WBA #9, IBF #9 Miller appeared to get the worst of it in the 1st round, as Kassi found him an easy target to hit with his shots. Miller was plodding forward like you would expect from a slow, 300lb heavyweight, and Kassi was teeing off on him. Kassi made the mistake of letting Miller hit him with body shots while perched against the ropes in the 2nd and 3rd rounds.

It’s hard to get a proper gauge on Miller from this performance due to Kassi fighting such a poor fight. A smarter heavyweight would have kept Miller in the center of the ring where he would have had a harder time landing anything with his slow punches.

The positives that came out of tonight’s fight for Miller was that he showed good power and aggressiveness when throwing to the body. Miller was able to throw combinations and his right hand looked powerful. However, Miller was out-boxed at times by Kassi, and it looked to me like he would have major problems if he had to deal with that kind of fighting style for the full fight rather than just brief spurts.

Miller looked out of his depths when Kassi would box. Unfortunately for Kassi, he didn’t realize what was working and not working for him in the fight. Instead of sticking with what did work, boxing, moving and throwing single pot shots against the bigger Miller, Kassi ended up backing up to the ropes and letting Miller blast him apart That’s the wrong approach to fighting a guy as heavy, powerful and slow like Miller.

“In the second round, I got my wind and I knew I hurt him,” said Miller after the fight. “My legs came alive and I touched his body and his head. I knew I was going to get the stoppage.”

Why Miller would be gassed out after just one round is the big question. For fighters that get their second wind after just one round, it tells you there’s a stamina problem there that could hurt them in future fights. With Miller being almost 300 pounds in the fight, it’s all that surprising that he was getting tired after just one round of action.

Carrying around all that weight has got to be tough on Miller’s legs and tough on his heart to pump blood to all that mass. Miller isn’t built to be a fighter unfortunately. He’s got more of a wrestling or football type of physique. I think Miller is going to have problems in the future when he’s forced to move around the ring and deal with a boxer for 10 to 12 rounds rather than stationary fighters like Kassi, who unwittingly made it easy for Miller by backing up against the ropes.

Miller wants the bigger names in the division like Deontay Wilder, Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury, but what we saw tonight, I don’t think he would do well against any of those fighters. Those guys actually think inside the ring, and they don’t do stupid things like backing up against the ropes so that a slow, overweight 300lb fighter can load up on his shots all night long. I think Miller needs to prove himself against top fighters so that he can earn a title shot against one of those champions.

Kassi isn’t nearly good enough to be a jumping board to a world title fight. If that was the case, then we’d be seeing Hughie Fury getting a world title shot right now, because he recently beat Kassi by a 7th round technical decision last April. Kassi came into the Miller fight tonight having lost two out of his last three fights.

“Tyson Fury, he doesn’t want this work. He’s always complaining. He’s always sick or something. I don’t know what’s wrong with him,” said Miller after the fight. “Wilder, every five minutes he breaks another finger. Look, it’s just a matter of time before these guys are going to have to put up or shut up. Anthony Joshua, that’s going to be a mega-fight. I am just begging for him to call my name.”

If Miller wants Joshua to call his name, then he needs to fight some of the better heavyweights in the division, preferably ones that can move around the ring and think while they’re fighting. Fighting a small, old journeyman like Kassi doesn’t tell us anything about Miller. It just tells the boxing fan that he can beat the same fighter that was previously beaten by 21-year-old Hughie Fury, 43-year-old Amir Mansour and Dominic Breazeale. Miller needs to prove that he can beat guys like Luis Ortiz, Bryant Jennings, Kubrat Pulev and Joseph Parker before he gets a title shot.

Parker would be a real problem for Miller, because he’s not only big and powerful at 6’4”, 240lbs, but he also moves really well and has a great jab. Miller would need to prove that he can move around the ring and throw jabs and overhand power shots to beat someone like Parker. Miller wouldn’t be able to rely on his body punching against Parker, because he wouldn’t just stand stationary against the ropes like a sparring partner the way that Kassi did tonight.

The negatives that came from Miller’s performance against Kassi are as follows:

– Miller looked very slow on his feet and hittable. He only seems capable of working over his opponents when they back against the ropes like a sparring partner.

– Miller is way too easy to hit for his own good. His defense is not there at all. He depends too much on his huge size advantage and punching power to win his fights. That’s not going to work in the future when Miller stars facing guys that can really punch. A fighter like Deontay Wilder would especially be dangerous for Miller because he’s way too easy to hit flush with shots. Miller would have a hard time taking solid right hands from Wilder or the punishment he would be forced to absorb in a fight against Joshua.

– After just one round, Miller was looking tired and talking about being gassed against Kassi. That’s not good. Miller had got to be able to fight hard for three minutes of every round without him fading if he wants to beat the top fighters in the division.

Showtime needs to make sure that Miller is fighting better opposition than the likes of Kassi in the future before they televise his fights, because the guy is too old to be fighting journeyman like Kassi. Showtime needs to set the bar a little higher by insisting that Miller at least fight guys in the class of Jennings, Carlos Takam, Artur Szpilka, Bermane Stiverne, Luis Ortiz. Johann Duhaupas, Pulev, Andy Ruiz, David Haye, Eric Molina, Gerald Washington, Parker, Guillermo Jones, Dereck Chisora, David Price, Hughie Fury, Dillian Whyte or Alexander Dimitrenko. At least the fans can learn something from watching Miller fight those guys, and he would be able to show whether he’s got the talent to fight for a world title or not. I don’t know that Miller has that kind of talent from watching him against a limited fighter like Kassi tonight. It was too much of a size mismatch tonight against the small 6-foot Kassi.

Miller needs new dedication to his conditioning, because he can’t be coming into fights 280lbs or heavier when he starts fighting the better heavyweights in the division. That’s far too big for Miller to be successful against the top talents in the division. Miller doesn’t realize it yet that he’s too heavy to beat the better heavyweights, but he’ll find out in time when his management finally puts him in with someone that can expose his weight and slow movement.

Other boxing results on the card:

Mason Menard TKO 9 Bahodir “Baha” Mamadjonov
Bakhtiyar Eyubov SD 10 Karim Mayfield
Antonio Nieves draw 10 and Alejandro Santiago