Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller vs. Marius Wach on Nov.11

By Boxing News - 09/26/2017 - Comments

Image: Jarrell "Big Baby" Miller vs. Marius Wach on Nov.11

By Jim Dower: Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller (19-0-1, 17 KOs) will be fighting the towering 6’7 ½” former world title challenger Mariusz Wach (33-2, 17 KOs) on November 11 on the Danny Jacobs vs. Luis Arias card on HBO Boxing from the Nassau Colisseum, in Uniondale, New York.

Miller vs. Wach will be the co-feature bout on the Jacobs-Arias card on HBO. Miller will be moving over from Showtime Boxing for his debut on HBO. This will give Miller a good chance to be seen by a lot of fans for the first time.

You can bet that Miller will take advantage of this by looking to knockout Wach, and then call out the top heavyweights afterwards when interviewed by HBO’s commenting team.

This is a contest will show the boxing world how well Miller can do against a fighter that has mixed it up in the past in defeats against Wladimir Klitschko and Alexander Povetkin. Neither of those heavyweights was able to hurt Wach; although Povetkin did stop him in the 12th round on cuts in his fight with the Polish heavyweight. If Miller is able to knockout Wach, it would send a strong message to the top heavyweights in boxing that he’s a force to be reckoned with.

The 6’4” Miller has the size, chin and punching power to be successful at the highest rungs of the heavyweight division. What’s unclear is whether Miller has the speed to catch up to the bigger, more mobile heavyweights.

At nearly 300 pounds, Miller plods around the ring like a heavyweight from an era long forgotten. Miller does not quickly around the ring, which is expected for a fighter weighing in the 300 lb. range. Miller is carrying around too much weight for his own good. However, even if Miller were lighter, he likely would still be a plodder. He’s built to be heavy and slow. Miller is fine being that large against the mediocre opposition he’s been facing, but against the better heavyweights, he could come apart and be exposed.

For the 29-year-old “Big Baby” Miller, this is his second consecutive fight against a 6’7” former world title challenger opponent. In Miller’s last fight, he defeated former WBC world title challenger Gerald Washington by an 8th round stoppage on July 29 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. It was a competitive fight for the first 6 rounds. Once Washington got tired, then Miller was able to walk him down and punish him on the inside with hard body shots and uppercuts to the head. Washington gassed out and was pulled out of the fight.

Fighting a big guy like Poland’s Wach should give Miller a good chance to get accustomed to the size that he’ll be dealing with when/if he eventually gets into the ring with the 6’5” IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and 6’7” Deontay Wilder. Those guys are both big and powerful. They’re also very athletic.

Miller can’t count on them getting tired after 3 rounds like he did with Washington. Miller hasn’t taken much of an interest in getting his weight down for his fights unfortunately. He’s weighed 298 and 296 pounds respectively in his last 2 fights. That weight is going to need to come down dramatically if he wants to be able to compete against Joshua and Wilder. Miller can’t walk into the ring a fat 300 lbs. and expect to be able to slowly walk Joshua and Wilder down. Those guys hit too hard, and they’ll bounce right hands off Miller’s head all night long until something gives.

Miller doesn’t do much to get out of the way of shots. It’ll come down to whether Joshua and Wilder will eventually tire from hitting him in the head. I don’t think they will. That’s why Miller is going to need to go on a weight loss regimen to try and lose some of that flab if he’s serious about wanting to face the best in the heavyweight division instead of the bottom feeders, which you can argue Washington and Wach are.

Wach, 37, has won 6 out of his last 7 fights since losing to former heavyweight world champion Wladimir Klitschko by a 12 round unanimous decision on November 10, 2012. Wach hurt Wladimir at one point early in the fight before the Ukrainian buckled down and started to give him a pounding. The fight was not competitive. Wach was stopped 2 years ago by former WBA champion Alexander Povetkin by a 12th round knockout on November 4, 2015.

Despite being knocked out, Wach gave Povetkin plenty of problems with his size, constant jab and occasional right hands. Wach looked very slow in that fight, but he still gave Povetkin headaches until he turned it on in the 12th to get the stoppage win on cuts. Since that fight, Wach has won his last 2 in defeating Marcelo Luiz Nascimento and Erkan Teper by decisions.

Wach’s 12 round unanimous decision victory over Teper was something of a surprise, as Teper is a decent heavyweight with good punching power. Teper knocked out British heavyweight David Price in the 2nd round in 2015. Teper hasn’t looked like the same guy though since beating Derric Rossy in 2016. Teper has lost his last 2 fights to Wach and Christian Hammer. Wach’s other wins in the last 3 years have come against these guys:

Samir Kurtagic

Travis Walker

Gbenga Oluokun

Konstantin Airich

It’s going to be interesting to see if Miller can stop Wach. Miller won’t have to go looking for Wach, as he doesn’t move well at all. Miller will have to eat some shots from Wach, because he’s not just going to stand there. Wach will make sure he throws his jab frequently and he’ll come over the top with some right hands.

At 6’7 ½”, 260 pounds, Wach packs a wallop when he connects cleanly with his right hand. Miller will know that he’s been hit if Wach connects cleanly. The Polish heavyweight has more punching power than Miller’s last opponent Gerald Washington, and a lot more size than the 6’0” Fred Kassi, who Miller stopped in the 3rd round last year on August 19.

Wach was recently mentioned as a possible opponent for heavyweight contender Dillian Whyte for May of this year, but unfortunately the British fighter suffered an injury and couldn’t take the fight.