Jared Anderson says he could retire early without fighting for a heavyweight world title if he makes enough money in just fighting “overseas against big names.”
Following the ‘Tank’ Davis Model
The Top Rank-promoted 24-year-old Anderson (16-0, 15 KOs) feels that he can’t force any of the world champions to want to put their titles on the line in a fight against him, knowing that they might lose.
Anderson states that if he’s avoided, he’ll just make his fortune fighting other heavyweights outside of world title fights the way that Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis did before he ever won a world belt. Tank made a lot of money before he captured his first world title in 2017.
Successful Headlining Act
‘Big Baby’ Anderson has already made good money headlining cards for Top Rank on ESPN against fighters like Charles Martin and Andriy Rudenko. If Anderson can continue to bankroll cash fighting lesser guys, it won’t matter if he never gets a chance to fight for a world title against Tyson Fury or Oleksandr Usyk.
We know that those guys don’t mention Anderson, and neither does Anthony Joshua. Those fights would make Anderson a lot of money, and his chances of getting any of them anytime soon are slim.
Anderson will fight Ryad Merhy (32-2, 26 KOs) in a ten-round headliner this Saturday, April 13th, at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Jared is ranked #4 WBO, #5 IBF, #5 WBC, and #13 WBA. What he needs is a bigger name to get him to #1 spot in the rankings to become a mandatory. Obviously fighting the little known former cruiserweight Merhy is not the direction he needs to be going in for him to get to where he wants to.
Anderson Can’t Force Fights
“It depends on how the route goes. I can’t make a world title fight. The boxing councils can mandate it,” said Jared Anderson to the Sean Zittel YouTube channel when asked if he believes he’ll capture a heavyweight world title.
“Only thing I can do is keep winning and telling people I want to fight them, but I can’t make anybody put their name on the dotted line. I can try to get one of the boxing councils to mandate it.
“Once they see I got this many wins and knockouts. ‘We’re going to mandate a world title fight or an eliminator,’ but I can’t make it happen as quick as people want me to. They seen that I’ve been ranked for years, and they’re like, ‘Oh, you fighting bums.’ No, I’ve been ranked for years because they know what I’m capable of.
“Just because of that doesn’t mean that I can mandate anybody to sign over their title because they know they’re going to lose. If they don’t want to take the risk, they don’t want to take the risks. I can’t make them do nothing. I do know I’m capable, and I do believe in my ability.
“It’s just how long is it going to be? If I make my money on the outside without being a world champion. I’ve seen Tank make a lot of money in fights that weren’t world title fights. If I can do the same with my walkouts and going overseasons fighting bigger names, then so be it. I might retire early,” said Anderson.
