By Jim Dower: Promoter Eddie Hearn says he was fully expecting Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller (23-0-1, 20 KOs) to act out in some way during the kickoff press conference with Anthony Joshua (22-0, 21 KOs) earlier on Tuesday in New York, but he didn’t think he would resort to shoving when it came time to do the face off.
Joshua looked surprised as well after Miller gave him a hard shove when he walked up to him or the face off. Although Joshua tried to get Miller to come back so they could finish the face off, but he refused and stood at a distance talking loudly to him, and looked very worked up.
Joshua vs. Miller will be taking place on June 1 on DAZN at Madison Square Garden in New York. This is Miller’s big chance to taking Joshua’s IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight titles from him, and he’s going to try to make the most of this big opportunity. Miller wasn’t the first choice or the second choice for Joshua.
“I expected Jarrell Miller to impose himself. The push was seamless,” Eddie Hearn said to Fighthype about Miller shoving Joshua during Tuesday’s news conference in New York. “It was one of the few times I’ve seen Anthony Joshua become unraveled, because normally he’s very composed, but you can’t be composed when a man is talking to you like that. It’s good for the fight. Joshua needs to make sure he doesn’t box with emotion, because he did that against Dillian Whyte. He went in there like a lunatic…it wasn’t a good performance. Maybe Jarrell Miller looks at it, and says, ‘that’s how I have to get into Anthony Joshua’s head. It’s probably good tactics. You’re going to get that with Jarrell Miller. You’ve seen that in every build up he’s ever done. Even when there’s no animosity and rivalry, even when there’s not a lot on the line, Jarrell still talks that way. He still imposes himself. So when there’s all this on the line, you’re going to see that build up more and more. I expected this from him,” Hearn said.
If Hearn didn’t want Joshua to have to deal with a fighter like Miller, then he shouldn’t have put the fight together. Hearn obviously didn’t come into this fight blind not knowing what kind of personality Miller is. He was picked out by him because of his ability to sell his fights. There are arguably better contenders than Miller, but they don’t make as much noise as he does in hyping his fights. Hearn signed Miller to his Matchroom Boxing label in part because of the theatrics that he brings to his fights.
“I thought his speech was brilliant,” Hearn said about Miller. “He was compelling, and he was believable. He means it, and wants it. We got to do another one on Monday. It is what it is. We got to get it out of the way. We got to do a sit down with DAZN tomorrow face to face,” Hearn said.
