By Tim Royner: Anthony Joshua could be facing American heavyweight Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller this summer if Jarrell wins impressively in his April 28th fight against former title challenger Johann Duhaupas (37-4, 24 KOs) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport says the plan is to have IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs) make his American debut against ‘Big Baby’ Miller (20-0-1, 18 KOs) if he gets past the 37-year-old Duhaupas and looks good in winning.
Hearn wants to have Joshua, 28, fight in the U.S against Miller to help build up a big unification match between him and WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder (39-0, 38 KOs). Wilder must win his title defense against Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz (28-0, 24 KOs) on March 3 on Showtime Boxing at the Barclays Center. Wilder absolutely has to beat the 38-year-old Ortiz for him to stay in the picture for an eventual mega-clash against AJ. Hearn says he’s not sure if Wilder will beat Ortiz, as he feels that’s a risky fight for him.
Hearn states that Wilder is living in fantasyland with the purse split that he’s asking for the Joshua fight. Wilder wants a 50-50 split, and Hearn feels that’s not what he’s worth. Hearn says Joshua makes 10 times more than what Wilder is making for his fights. Hearn doesn’t say whether Wilder would need to accept 10 times less than Joshua. If Hearn offers Wilder a miniscule purse in compared to Joshua, then the fight will never get made. Hearn is the one living on Fantasy Island if he’s only going to offer Wilder a 10th of what Joshua is getting. Even WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker got a better deal than that for his fight with Joshua on March 31 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Parker is getting between 30 and 35 percent of the purse for the Joshua fight.
“I think the American debut is eminent in 2018,” Hearn said to Thaboxingvoice.com. “If Wilder beats Ortiz, he’s a target. As I said, Jarrell Miller would be the perfect opponent at the Barclays for his [Joshua] debut fight, but Jarrell has got to give us an excuse to make that fight, and he can do that with a commanding victory against Duhaupas. That’s a very tough fight. If Jarrell can beat Duhaupas, he’s then beaten [Gerald] Washington, [Mariusz] Wach and Duhaupas. I think he’s worthy of a title shot. So there’s a lot of pressure on him on April 28th,” Hearn said.
Miller, 6’4”, should be able to defeat Duhaupas. He certainly has a big advantage in terms of punching power over the 37-year-old fighter from France. It’s hard to predict whether Miller will look good or not against Duhaupas. Miller hasn’t looked good since his fight with journeyman Fred Kassi in August 2016. That was 2 years ago. Since then, Miller struggled against Gerald Washington and Mariusz Wach. Washington had Miller ready to be knocked out in the 5th round of their fight last year in July. Washington hit Miller with over 10 consecutive head shots at one point in round 5. Some referees would have stepped in at that point and stopped the contest. Miller took the punches, and then he came on and scored an 8th round stoppage. More than anything, the victory for Miller was a product of the 6’6” Washington gassing out? Miller looked slow and weak in his last fight in stopping Wach in the 9th round last November on the undercard of Daniel Jacobs vs. Luis Arias at the Barclays Center. Miller said he wasn’t strong because he had responded to his critics telling him he was too heavy. Miller weighed 283 lbs. for the Wach fight, which was 15 lbs. less than what he’d weight for his previous fight against Washington.
”For a Brit, the biggest start in world boxing in my opinion traveling to Brooklyn to defend his world heavyweight titles against a kid from Brooklyn, that’s an easy sell, especially against Anthony Joshua,” Hearn said. ”We need to see Jarrell put in a special performance that will say this is a great fight. The Brits would love to see Anthony Joshua come and see him beat up on an American on U.S soil,” Hearn said.
The interest from boxing fans in Joshua vs. Miller might not be as much as Hearn thinks it is. Miller isn’t a big name even in the U.S He’s now signed with HBO to have his fights televised on that network, but he’s neither looked good or fought quality opposition since he signed with them. The interest from the UK boxing fans in a Joshua-Miller fight might be reasonably high, but it’s doubtful the American fans will be too excited about this fight. Miller is still an unknown with most casual boxing fans in the States. It takes a while to build a fighter up in the U.S, and you’ve to fight better opposition than the guys Miller has been padding his record against.
Miller’s last 5 fights have come against these fighters:
• Mariusz Wach
• Gerald Washington
• Fred Kassi
• Nick Guivas
• Donovan Dennis
Hearn might be a little confused with thinking that Joshua will be able to create a lot of buzz with him fighting Jarrell Miller. It would be better for Hearn to match Joshua against Luis Ortiz in the summer. It doesn’t matter if Ortiz loses to Wilder on March 3. Joshua-Ortiz is still a far better fight than Joshua-Miller.
“Wilder has a residence on Fantasy Island,” Hearn said. “That fights not going to happen. You just have to look at the economics. Look at the money he’s making for the Ortiz fight, which is a massive risk fight. You get 1 guys making 10 times what the other guy is making. You have a guy with 3 belts against a guy with 1 belt,” Hearn said.
Whether it’s true that Joshua is making 10 X more than Wilder is immaterial. The fact is if Hearn wants to make a fight between Joshua and Wilder, he’s going to need to make a respectable offer that Wilder feels is fair. If Hearn only offers Wilder a 10% cut of the revenue for the Joshua fight, then he’s going to be laughed at. Wilder probably won’t take anything less than a 40 percent cut of the revenue for the fight. Hear can give Wilder what he wants, or he can get used to fighting guys like Miller, Alexander Povetkin and Dillian Whyte. Wilder will go in his direction and continue to defend his WBC title against the opposition his management puts him in with. Hearn will at least be able to have one of his fighter’s face Wilder in Dillian Whyte if he beats Lucas Browne on March 24 to become his mandatory challenger. Wilder will likely have no problems beating Whyte.
”If Wilder beats Ortiz, his stock rises,” Hearn said.” Even though he’s old, I do classify Ortiz as an elite heavyweight. We want him to win. I want the fight to be as big as possible. It’s about numbers. AJ is a much, much, much bigger draw than Deontay Wilder,” Hearn said.
Ortiz is just as much as an elite heavyweight against Joseph Parker is. Ortiz’s wins over Tony Thompson and Bryant Jennings. Ortiz is the real deal. He might be getting a little bit older now, but he’s still a threat to most heavyweights in the division including Joshua.
