By Jim Calfa: Heavyweight contender Jared Anderson’s self-belief is still unshakable despite his lackluster performance against Charles Martin earlier this month on July 1st. In that fight, the 23-year-old Anderson was rocked several times and out on his feet in the final seconds of the ten-round contest.
Anderson will be coming back next month against veteran Andriy Rudenko (35-6, 21 KOs) in a 10-round fight on August 26th on ESPN at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Jared’s fight against 39-year-old journeyman Rudenko will be shown in the Top Rank event on ESPN, ESPN+ at 10:30 p.m. ET.
Bob Arum of Top Rank believes Anderson is a future heavyweight world champion in the making, but he’s not saying how soon he’ll make that a reality. With WBC champion Tyson Fury getting older and not showing much ambition any longer, it’s likely he’ll retire soon.
That’s a belt that Anderson could potentially capture, as long as he doesn’t tangle with anyone dangerous like Deontay Wilder or Arslanbek Makhmudov.
“This is another great test for Jared. When you watch him fight, you are seeing a future heavyweight champion of the world,” said Bob Arum. “Rudenko is a crafty veteran who has been in there with some top guys.”
Anderson, who isn’t shy about boasting about himself, still believes that he’s got the talent to be the ‘being best of all time.‘ Unfortunately, reality suggests otherwise. Anderson isn’t going to be the best, and he could soon be forgotten if his promoters make the mistake of putting him in with a heavyweight that can actually fight like Makhmudov.
The 6’3″ Anderson says he’s got a bag of tricks that he hasn’t shown yet in his fights, and he feels that when he’s put in a certain fight, he’ll be able to display them.
“I’m going to get into a fight where I’m going to have to unleash that whole bag, and everybody will get to see it, and they’re going to be like: ‘Wow, we never knew he could do this,'” said Jared Anderson to Sky Sports.
All we know thus far is Andersson fights well when coming forward, but he immediately retreats in a straight line when attacked. His punch resistance is not good, as he’s now been hurt in fights against Martin and Jerry Forrest.
It could be that Jared is just another one of the many overconfident fighters in boxing that come along and brag about themselves while fighting fodder opposition but then fall apart when the training wheels are finally taken off.
Anderson is very good at self-promoting, but his talent doesn’t match what he says about himself.
If Jared is going to achieve his goal of being the top heavyweight of all time, he’s going to need to either make huge improvements right away or extend his four-year timeline before he retires at age 27.
Obviously, that wouldn’t be saying much about the great heavyweights of the past if Jared Anderson could be the best of all time if he retires in four years.
With the lesser opposition that Anderson is being fed, it’s hard to take him seriously because he’s being protected from the sharks in the heavyweight division.
