Jared Anderson (16-0, 15 KOs) returns to the ring this Saturday night, April 13th, in a ten-round headliner on ESPN against former cruiserweight Ryad Merhy. This is another building fight for the troubled 24-year-old prospect/contender at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas.
The main card starts at 10:00 p.m. ET on ESPN+ and ESPN.
The Gem on Saturday’s card: Abdullah Mason
Abdullah Mason, arguably the most talented fighter on the entire card, will fight Ronal Ron in an eight-round lightweight fight on the preliminary portion of the card.
The prelim card starts at 7:00 p.m. ET on ESPN+.
Abdullah Mason (12-0, 10 KOs) is the one Top Rank should have in the main event, not Jared Anderson. He has real talent and is showing the ability to one day become a world champion.
Complete card for Saturday
Jared Anderson vs. Ryad Merhy
Ruben Villa vs. Christian Cruz
Efa Ajagba vs. Guido Vianello
Charley Suarez vs. Luis Coria
Abdullah Mason vs. Ronal Ron
Jonlan Walker vs. Alejandro Guerrero
Robson Conceicao vs. Jose Ivan Guardado
John Cincon vs. Yainel Alvarez Telemaco
Ali Felix vs. Anthony Woods on III
Julian Delgado vs. Juan C. Tamez
Merhy: Heavyweight Flavor of the Month
Despite the shiny record, Merhy (32-2, 26 KOs) is another safe test for Anderson. The 32-year-old Merhy has only fought three times since moving up to heavyweight and was soundly beaten by Kevin Lerena in a one-sided 10-round decision loss last year.
That fight shows you what Merhy is all about. He’s another tomato can being brought in for Anderson to knock over and look great, but without telling fans anything about whether he will pan out one of these days if he can stay out of jail.
Anderson’s promoter, Bob Arum of Top Ranks, wants to have him fight for a heavyweight world title in 2026. It’s believed that Arum is waiting for champion Tyson Fury to retire and Anthony Joshua to get older.
AJ is also believed to be close to retirement, so there’s a possibility that Anderson can slide on in and fight a lesser fighter for one of the vacant belts. It’s questionable whether Anderson can even beat someone like Daniel Dubois or Filip Hrgovic if one of those guys is his opponent in 2026.
“He has a big test against this Belgian fighter that has a great resume, Merhy. I believe that given the rest of the year, and next year, that by 2026 Jared will be fighting for the heavyweight championship of the world and be the next great heavyweight,” said Top Rank promoter Bob Arum to BoxNation about Jared Anderson.
The Struggles are Real
Andersons’ promoters at Top Rank still aren’t ready to move him up against top-tier heavyweight contenders after watching him struggle last year against former IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin.
The way that 37-year-old southpaw Martin took advantage of Anderson’s Shakur-esque fighting style by chasing him down when he used his pull-back move was an eye-opener, showing that he’s not nearly ready to fight quality opposition.
That was likely the reason Top Rank chose to match Anderson against 40-year-old Andriy Rudenko last August, a fight that he won by a fifth-round knockout but one that didn’t help him develop in any real way.
Time to Wake Up, Top Rank
You can ignore Anderson’s 16-0 record because all of his wins have come against second—and third-tier opposition during his five-year career. He’s not faced anyone who can tell if Top Rank has spent its money right by trying to develop this guy.
Anderson is an experiment with Top Rank, and it remains to be seen if it works out for them or if they end up with another Edgar Berlanga in their hands.
We saw how Top Rank matched Berlanga against 16 consecutive third-tier tomato cans in the first four years of his career. When they moved him up to second-tier fodder-level fighters, he began to struggle badly. Shortly after that, Berlanga left Top Rank, and he’s now Eddie Hearn’s problem.
Jared Anderson’s situation looks very similar. Top Rank could have a useless albatross on its hands, and it will have to decide soon whether to keep him or cut him loose.