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 City. This is a fight designed to rebuild Anderon’s confidence after what happened to him in his last fight on August 3rd.
Prisoner Nightmare
The 25-year-old ‘Big Baby’ Anderson, who was promoted by the highest rank, was destroyed Martin Bakole in five rounds last August, and he looked awful in that fight. Jared was completely outclassed on vault, falling in the first round. The fight would have ended in the first round if the knockdown had happened earlier, as Anderson appeared to be gone after getting to his feet.
Bakole was too powerful for Anderson. In the fifth, he took Anderson down twice more to reach the knockout. It wasn’t even sporty. Promoter Bob Arum hasn’t given up on Jared, but you have to believe he’s going to give up on him soon if he keeps performing like this.
If you’re Arum, you have to consider throwing Anderson overboard if he looks bad against the little-known Kollias. This is a confidence-boosting kind 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 resistance to punches, lack of power, and shy way of fighting make him unlikely to improve.
Anderson looks good throwing combos and attacking weak prey, but he looked terrible against Bakole. The guys at the top of the heavyweight division get pretty old.
So there is a chance that Jared can win one of the belts when the old guys retire, but not if he faces anyone as powerful as Bakole or even Zhilei Zhang. He is 41 years old, but he is still too dangerous for Anderson. If Arum can protect Jared long enough, he may be able to capture the belt at some point. He would have to keep him away from anyone with power because he would be destroyed like he was against Bakola.
This wasn’t the first time Anderson looked thin. He was injured in fights against Jerry Forrest and Charles Martin. Those fights showed that Jared’s ability to hang with even shorter fighters just isn’t there. It’s too fragile. That’s what I would do.
Arum still believes in Jared
Anderson-Kollias will fight the 10-county undercard of Dennis Berinchik vs. Keyshawn Davis on ESPN and ESPN+.
“I still believe that Jared Anderson is one of the most feared heavyweights in the world and I expect him to come back 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 to be protected just like Jared. He has already struggled against Nahir Albright and Miguel Maduen.
Keyshavn looked like a WWE wrestler against Maduen, and the referee didn’t disqualify him for all the rough tactics he used in that fight. Davis looked desperate to win and emptied the cupboards for any gimmick that could prevent Maduen from knocking him out.
Andy Cruz worked over Keyshawn at the 2020 Olympics, easily defeating him in a one-sided gold medal fight in the final. It was surprising that Arum decided to sign Keyshawn after that loss and not Cruz. I guess he thinks he can build him up with his ability to trash talk instead of fighting.
