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Heavyweight Jared Anderson (17-1, 15 KOs) needs an impressive performance next month against Marios Kollias (12-3-1, 10 KOs) on Friday, February 14 at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. This is a fight designed to rebuild Anderon’s confidence after what happened to him in his last fight on August 3.
Prisoner’s Nightmare
Top Rank-promoted ‘Big Baby’ Anderson, 25, was destroyed by Martin Bakole in five rounds last August, and he looked terrible in that fight. Jared was completely outmatched from the jump and fell in the first round. The fight would have ended in the first round if the knockdown had occurred earlier because Anderson seemed missing after getting up.
Bakole was too powerful for Anderson. In the fifth, he knocked down Anderson two more times to get the knockout. It wasn’t even sporty. Promoter Bob Arum hasn’t given up on Jared, but you have to believe he will soon if he continues to act like this.
If you’re Arum, you should consider throwing Anderson away if he looks bad against the little-known Kollias. This is a confidence-boosting type of fight for Jared, but if he looked terrible here, Arum needs to get rid of him. He’s still young enough to improve, but his punch resistance, lack of power, and timid way of fighting make it unlikely he can improve.
Anderson looks good when throwing combinations and attacking weak holds, but he looked terrible against Bakole. The guys at the top of the heavyweight division are getting pretty old.
So there’s a chance that Jared could capture one of the belts once the old guys retire, but not if he faces someone with power, like Bakole or even Zhilei Zhang. He’s 41 years old, but he’s still too dangerous for Anderson. If Arum can protect Jared long enough, he could capture a belt at some point. He would have to keep him away from anyone with power because he will be destroyed like he did against Bakole.
This wasn’t the first time Anderson looked chubby. He had been injured in his fights against Jerry Forrest and Charles Martin. Those fights showed that Jared’s ability to take on even lower level fighters simply isn’t there. It’s too fragile. That’s what I would do.
Arum still believes in Jared
Anderson-Kollias will fight 10 rounds on the Denys Berinchyk vs. Keyshawn Davis on ESPN and ESPN+.
“I continue to believe that Jared Anderson is one of the most formidable heavyweights in the world and I hope he returns with a vengeance this year,” Arum said.
Keyshawn Davis is another of Arum’s projects that he is trying to turn into a star. However, he will need protection just like Jared. He has already had problems in his fights against Nahir Albright and Miguel Madueño.
Keyshawn looked like a WWE wrestler against Madueno, and the referee didn’t disqualify him for all the rough tactics he used in that fight. Davis seemed desperate to win and emptied his closets looking for any trick he could to prevent Madueno from knocking him out.
Andy Cruz bested Keyshawn at the 2020 Olympics, easily beating him in a one-sided gold medal fight in the finals. It was surprising that Arum decided to sign Keyshawn after that loss instead of Cruz. I guess he’s thinking he can make him stronger with his ability to talk trash instead of fight.
