By Brian Webber: Unbeaten heavyweight contender Jared Anderson will face replacement opponent Charles Martin in a scheduled twelve-round headliner on ESPN at the Huntington Center in Toledo, Ohio.

Hopefully, Top Rank knows what they’re doing using the southpaw Charles Martin as the replacement opponent because he’s got one-punch power with his accurate left hand.

The Jared Anderson vs. Charles Martin event begins at 10:00 p.m./7:00 p.m. ET on ESPN, ESPN Deportes, and ESPN+.

In the chief support bout, heavyweight contender Arslanbek Makhmudov (16-0, 15 KOs) battles unbeaten Raphael Akpejiori (15-0, 14 KOs) in a ten round clash, which is arguably a better fight than the main event.

The 23-year-old Top Rank-promoted Anderson (14-0, 14 KOs) had been scheduled to fight the hard-hitting Kazakh Zhan Kossobutskiy (19-0, 18 KOs) in the main event, but he had via issues, which prevented him from making the trip to take the fight.

Martin will be a good test for the unbeaten Anderson; the Toledo native has shown a porous defense, and he could be a knockout waiting to happen if he doesn’t fix that hole in his game.

The big 6’5″ southpaw Martin has the power, size, and stance to give Anderson something to consider. This isn’t the typical ham & egger opponent that Top Rank has been matching Anderson against during his short four-year professional career.

Martin is a lethal puncher with the power to knock anybody out in the division, including the top dog, Tyson Fury.

Luckily, the 37-year-old Charles Martin (29-3-1, 26 KOs) can take the fight with Anderson on ten days’ notice.

While the 6’5″ Martin is kind of up in age, a little past it, Top Rank isn’t about to throw someone dangerous in with the youngster because he needs to get more experience before being thrown to the wolves.

Martin briefly held the IBF heavyweight title in January 2016, winning the belt after his opponent Vyacheslav Glazkov suffered a fight-ending knee injury in the third round.

It was not the ideal manner for the 6’5″ southpaw Martin to capture the IBF title, but he wasn’t going to turn it down.

In Martin’s first defense, he lost his IBF belt to Anthony Joshua by a first-round knockout in April 2016 in London, England. Martin got a massive payday for that fight, so it wasn’t all bad for him.

Since losing Joshua, Martin has gone 6-2, losing only to Adam Kownacki by a narrow 10 round decision in 2018 and getting knocked out by Luis Ortiz in the sixth round in 2022.

“I’ve always said I will fight anyone, anywhere, anytime,” said Charles Martin. If I have to fight on less than two weeks’ notice to get a big opportunity, so be it. I’m ready.

“And since I can’t get the best guys from my generation to fight me, I’ll fight the best guy from the new generation. My goal is to become a two-time heavyweight champion. I have to beat Jared Anderson to accomplish my goal.”

The ultra-confident Jared Anderson has recent wins over these fighters:

George Arias
Jerry Forrest
Oleksandr Teslenko
Vladimir Tereshkin
Miljan Rovcanin

What we saw in Anderson’s fight with the journeyman Forrest is that he gets hit a lot and cleanly. These aren’t shots that are glancing off Anderson’s gloves. He’s getting hit flush, showing that his hand & coordination is lacking when picking off incoming punches.

“I’m just ready for it. It’s another fight for me,” said Anderson to Fight Hub TV. “I don’t even like people. They’re going to hate me, or they they’re not going to pay attention at all.”

Anderson has a disturbing outlook on the fans, and hopefully, that bitterness doesn’t stick with him lifelong. That’s a tough way to look at people.