By Adam Baskin: Heavyweight Jared Anderson weighed in at 243.4 lbs & Charles Martin came in at 250.5 lbs for their 10-round main event on Saturday, July 1st card, promoted by Top Rank from the Huntington Center in Toledo and live on ESPN+
There’s a lot of excitement about the potential of Jared Anderson as a future potential heavyweight champion, but it’s far too early to tell whether he’ll live up to those expectations.
At some point, Top Rank will need to throw the 23-year-old Anderson into the deep end because he’s not going to go anywhere if he’s matched the way Edgar Berlanga was when he was with the company or even Terence Crawford.
Anderson must begin fighting relevant opposition soon so that he can develop to his potential and Top Rank whether he’s worth investing time & money into his career.
Anderson faces first test
Jared’s attitude towards the sport is less than ideal, saying he doesn’t love boxing and sounding unsure if he wants to make this his career path.
If Anderson loses this fight, Top Rank will need to start looking around for another heavyweight to pin their hopes on as a replacement for the aging WBC champion Tyson Fury, who appears to be a few fights away from retirement.
Anderson doesn’t look nearly as solid and even does one day win a belt; he’s not someone that will have a long reign as a champion without the careful match-making we saw done with Berlanga and Crawford when they were with Top Rank.
In the chief support weights, #5 WBC heavyweight contender Arslanbek Makhmudov weighed 263.4 pounds, and his opponent Raphael Akperjiori scaled in at 255.5 lbs for their 10-lb bout.
Makhmudov (16-0, 15 KOs) is someone Jared Anderson could face soon, depending on how good the two look on Saturday. Not much is known about Makhmudov’s opponent, 32-year-old Akperjiori (15-0, 14 KOs).
Although the Nigerian native is unbeaten with good size at 6’8″, his five-year pro resume is weak, with no notable opposition. Akperjiori is going to b taking a major step up in class in facing the 6’5″ Makhmudov.
Akperjiori’s last six opponents:
- Dell Long (7-11-2)
- Terrell Jamal Woods (28-51-9)
- Santander Silgado Gelez (30-9)
- Steven Lyons (5-6-1)
- Brandon Spencer (9-18-3)
- Curtis Head (5-7)
You get the picture. Akperjiori has been matched against fluff by his promoters, and he’s taking a collosol step up in class, fighting Makhmudov on Saturday.
Martin still dangerous
Jared Anderson (14-0, 14 KOs), who is listed as 6’4″, appeared two inches shorter than the 6’5″ Charles Martin (29-3-1, 26 KOs) during their face-off, which suggests that some promoters for the 23-year-old Toledo native have been a little off in his size.
6’3″ is more than a good enough height for Anderson to still succeed during his career without the need to put a bogus number for his actual size.
Martin had a very brief stint as the IBF champion in 2016 after winning the vacant title when his opponent Vyacheslav Glazkov suffered a freak leg injury, tearing his ACL in his right knee while slipping on the canvas.
In Martin’s first of his IBF title, he lost to Anthony Joshua in the second round in April 2016 in London. That was pretty much the beginning of promoter Eddie Hearn’s rise to fame, with Joshua winning his first world title.
Anderson had been set to fight #8 WBC Zhan Kossobutskiy (19-0 18 KOs) but had to pull out because of visa issues. Charles Martin is an excellent replacement, and he should show whether Anderson is ready to step it up against top-ten-level opposition.
“I think Charles Martin is a good measuring stick. Although Anderson is seen as the next American star, Charles Martin is his best opponent,” said Dan Rafael on his Youtube channel. “Jared Anderson is 14-0, but not a lot of names on there, which is not surprising.
“He’s been moving up the ladder, he’s only 23 years old. His resume consists of a pretty good win in his last fight against the undefeated George Arias, who wasn’t a proven commodity either.
“Prior to that, he [Jared] had a second-round knockout of Jerry Forrest, who was a pretty solid second-tier contender, but he got really buzzed in the first round. It was probably the first time that Jared had been hit with a punch that you’d seen him noticeably react to in the way that he did.
“Charles Martin has fought some pretty good opponents, but he’s generally lost when he’s stepped up in competition.
“This is a fascinating fight because we’re going to find out a little bit more about Jared Anderson. This is heavyweight boxing, and one punch can change your world.”
