By Eóin Kennedy
Jared ‘Big Baby’ Anderson headlines Top Rank’s show in Corpus Christi, Texas tomorrow night when he faces off against Ryad Merhy in a heavyweight contest. Merhy bring a 32-2 record to the ring on Saturday, but truthfully, he is expected to play little more than a supporting role in this fight. Anderson, from Toledo, Ohio, is the twenty-four-year-old hot prospect that Top Rank are pushing, and all going to plan, Mehry will merely be the seventeenth name that ‘Big Baby’ will be adding to his so far perfect professional record.
Jared Anderson is still, a very young fighter, particularly by heavyweight standards, so many are quick to point out that he’s in no particular rush to get into the world title picture and should focus on getting more learning fights under his belt. While yes, learning fights at this stage of Anderson’s career are advisable, it should also be noted that the heavyweight division is in a state of flux and with a lot of the division’s top stars set to bow out of the sport in the next couple of years, it is important that the American star is ready to step into the void.
The four-world titles at heavyweight are currently shared between Oleksandr Usyk(WBO, WBA, IBF) and Tyson Fury(WBC) who will go to battle in their undisputed fight on May 18, in Saudi Arabia. Usyk and Fury have agreed to a bilateral rematch clause, so regardless of the result in the first fight, they will be getting it on again right away. By today’s boxing standards the earliest you could hope for that rematch to take place would be towards the end of 2024. By the time Fury and Usyk are done with their two-fight series they will be thirty-six and thirty-seven respectively, essentially meaning that they are a generation ahead of Anderson and he will most likely never face either one. Of the other prominent heavyweights of the current era, Anthony Joshua has already said he only has two years left fighting and his main focus before hanging up the gloves will be securing a massive all-England stadium fight with Fury. Deontay Wilder is thirty-eight and while he does plan to launch a comeback after his recent loss to Joseph Parker, don’t expect him to stick around long enough to cross paths with Anderson.
There’s no denying that the heavyweight division is in a transitional state with the big four, Fury, Usyk, Joshua, and Wilder all on the way out of the sport. Even when you peruse some of the other names that are considered contenders in the max weight class it becomes evident that a number of those fighters are also approaching or are already in the twilight of their careers. Zhilei Zhang is forty, Joseph Parker thirty-three, Dillian Whyte thirty-six, Joe Joyce is thirty-eight. The list goes on. What this means is that a slew of retirements is imminent at heavyweight and boxing’s blue-ribbon division is crying out for stars that can take the mantle. England’s Daniel Dubois and Croatia’s Filip Hrgovic will raise their hands and try and stake their claims as heavyweight supremos, but there’s no doubt that the moment seems primed for the man known as ‘Big Baby’. For whatever reason, boxing just seems better off when it’s got a big American star operating at heavyweight. A US heavyweight world champion tends to bring a different buzz to cities like New York and Las Vegas on fight nights and Anderson is the chosen one. Yes, the Ohio native has had some silly moments outside the ring which could potentially have jeopardized his career, but thankfully no major harm has been done and hopefully Anderson has learned from his mistakes. Top Rank’s Bob Arum will be hoping he has too, as Jared ‘Big Baby’ Anderson is on the verge of becoming the USA’s newest heavyweight sensation.