By Jeff Aranow: Unbeaten heavyweight contender Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller (21-0-1, 18 KOs) outworked former heavyweight world title challenger Johann ‘Reptile’ Duhaupas (37-5, 24 KOs) in winning a fairly one-sided 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night on HBO Boxing at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Miller, 29, did a good job of carrying his hefty 304 pounds around the ring for 112 rounds, throwing lots of punches. Unfortunately, most of the shots Miller threw were arm punches, as he didn’t have the ability to get his body behind his shots. Occasionally, Miller was able to get his legs into his shots to generate a little bit of power. The judges’ scores were 119-109, 117-111 and 119-109. Boxing News 24 had Miller winning 9 rounds to 3.
Miller got tired down the stretch and wasn’t all that impressive in rounds 11 and 12. The 37-year-old Duhaupas looked tired as well in the 11th, and he appeared to want to quit, but he was encouraged to keep fighting by his corner.
Duhaupas was able to land his shots whenever he let his hands go. Miller’s defense was just awful. His defense was basically his offense. By throwing a ton of shots, Miller was able to keep Duhaupas from letting his own hands go as much as he would have. However, when Duhaupas did let his hands go, he was right on target with his lefts and rights. Luckily for Miller, Duhaupas is not a big puncher. However, he still had enough power to bloody Miller’s nose late in the fight. Miller was getting hit with some shots that would turn into knockout blows if Joshua, Wilder or Alexander Povetkin were the ones throwing the punches.
This was not a great performance from Miller, who didn’t show anything in the fight that would suggest that he’ll be able to hang with WBC champion Deontay Wilder or IBF/WBA champ Anthony Joshua.
Duhaupas is known for having a good chin. He lasted until the 11th round in his fight with WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in September 2015. The only guy that was able to knockout Duhaupas early in a fight is Alexander Povetkin, who stopped him in the 6th round in December 2016.
Povetkin looked out of this world good in that fight, and much better than he’d ever looked before or since in his career. It’s doubtful that Povetkin would be able to knockout Duhaupas if the two were to fight now, as the Russian fighter looks slow and older than he was when he beat Duhaupas two years ago.
Miller says he wants to fight IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua now. He’s co-promoted by Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing, so there’s a chance that he could get a fight against him later this year if Deontay Wilder doesn’t face AJ. Povetkin will likely be Joshua’s next opponent.
In other action on tonight’s card, WBA female lightweight champion Katie Taylor (9-0, 4 KOs) defeated IBF champion Victoria Bustos (18-5) by a 10 round unanimous decision. The scores were 99-91, 99-91 and 98-92. Taylor landed a lot of shots, but she lacked the power to hurt Bustos.
Unbeaten lightweight Shohjahon Ergashev (12-0, 11 KOs) defeated Zhimin Wang (10-3, 3 KOs) by a 10 round unanimous decision. The scores were 100-90, 100-90 and 99-91.
Light welterweight Nikolay Buzolin (6-3-1, 2 KOs) defeated Larry Fryers (6-1, 2 KOs) by a 6th round knockout.
Undefeated welterweight prospect Julian Sosa (12-0-1, 4 KOs) defeated journeyman Larry Ventus (9-12-1, 4 KOs) by a 6 round majority decision. The scores were 58-56-58-56 and 57-57.
Lightweight Angel Sarinara (8-7-2, 3 KOs) defeated Dimash Niyazov (13-1-3, 6 KOs) by a 6 round unanimous decision. the scores were 59-52, 59-53 and 58-54.