In the undercard of the super welterweight world championship that took place on Saturday at the BMO Stadium in Los Angeles, two interesting heavyweight bouts were also featured. The 24-year-old American Jared “Big Baby” Anderson (17-1-0, 15 KOs) was heavily downsized by an overwhelming Martin Bakole (21-1-0, 16 KOs) who knocked him out in just five rounds. The high-tonnage battle between Andy “Destroyer” Ruiz (35-2-1, 22 KOs) and Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller (26-1-2, 22 KOs) ended in a draw, thanks to a very controversial decision. Miller felt robbed, a view supported by most observers.
Jared Anderson vs Martin Bakole
Those betting on the young Anderson, the pre-fight favorite according to bookmakers, expected an extremely cautious and conservative approach from the American prospect. Facing an opponent with very heavy hands, clearly superior to his previous rivals, Big Baby would have been better off staying away from him for a number of rounds, using his greater foot speed to tire him out before increasing the pace.
Instead, Anderson fought as if he were facing a journeyman: constantly positioned at mid-range and engaging in a dangerously risky in-and-out movement with multiple low-handed dodges. For almost three minutes, this strategy allowed him to showcase his good repertoire, but at the end of the first round, an overly risky move exposed him to Bakole’s terrible uppercut, who was excellent in pouncing on him after shaking him to score the first knockdown.
Despite the cold shower, Big Baby did not radically change his tactical plans and continued his usual style arrogantly. Even when Bakole’s blows forced him to retreat, he stopped with his back to the ropes and tried to weather the storm in place, as if he had Floyd Mayweather Jr’s reflexes and David Tua’s chin. Unfortunately for him, it turned out that he has neither.
Bakole fought with determination and great effectiveness. He waited in the center of the ring for his opponent to make a mistake, easily took his blows, and as soon as he managed to hurt him, he pursued him to increase the damage. In the fifth round, the uppercut once again proved to be the decisive blow: the Congolese boxer landed three consecutive uppercuts during a close exchange, sending Anderson to the canvas again. Another knockdown and the subsequent flurry of punches then led referee Jerry Cantu to declare the technical KO.
This victory is of great importance for Martin Bakole’s career, who at 32 seems to have truly reached the peak of his sporting performance. Now, the Congolese puncher will surely get another significant opportunity against a high-ranking boxer, and it is safe to bet that potential rivals will not be thrilled at the prospect of facing him.
Anderson, on the other hand, has received a resounding lesson in humility. There is nothing dramatic about suffering a defeat: many champions have lost when they were young, only to come back stronger. But the American will have to demonstrate that he can recognize his own limits. His fluidity in movement, his footwork, and his variety of punches can still guarantee him a bright future, but only if he adopts a much more pragmatic and conservative style: the outfighter style that allowed Otto Wallin to beat Murat Gassiev or Guido Vianello to hold his own against Efe Ajagba might be suitable for him.
Andy Ruiz Jr vs Jarrell Miller
Facilitated by Miller’s bizarre decision to take on the unaccustomed role of a counter-puncher in the first round, Ruiz approached the fight in the best possible way, giving a clear impression of being superior in many crucial aspects of the game. Faster with his hands, more varied in offensive solutions, and significantly more skilled from a technical standpoint, the boxer of Mexican descent clearly won the first three rounds, during which his opponent was only noted for multiple pushes, weakly admonished by the referee.
From the fourth round, however, something changed suddenly and unexpectedly. Ruiz began to walk backward, seemingly worried. His punches lost explosiveness and vigor, and it became increasingly easy for Miller to close in on him and smother him with his work rate. Sure, Big Baby’s work was far from impeccable technically, with blows sometimes landing even with the wrist, so poorly were they delivered, but he was still preferable compared to the conservative and obstructive conduct Ruiz adopted from a certain point onward.
The rounds followed almost identically to one another. The Destroyer generally started well, landing a few good punches at the start, then struggled, floundered, tried to put the action to sleep with cunning and craftiness but was progressively overtaken. Then, in the last twenty seconds, Miller would sharply increase the pace to win the round, sometimes even managing to shake his rival.
Ruiz tried with great difficulty to get back on track in the tenth and eleventh rounds, probably realizing that the fight was slipping out of his hands, but his successes were only partial, and at the end of the fight, the vast majority of spectators and insiders expected Big Baby to be proclaimed the winner. Incredibly, this did not happen: Mr. Robert Hoyle had the audacity to give Ruiz a four-point lead (a score that could only be explained if the judge had mistakenly swapped the two boxers), while Mr. Lou Moret and Mr. David Sutherland awarded a Solomon-like (but not particularly wise) draw.
During the customary interviews, the reason for Ruiz’s sudden drop became unequivocally clear: the Destroyer approached his opponent while the latter was speaking into the microphone and showed him his right hand, marked by an unnatural protrusion, explainable only by a fracture of the second metacarpal.
Thus, Ruiz fought a significant portion of the match with “blunted” weapons and had to make the best of a bad situation, struggling to stay afloat. While it is admirable that the Destroyer never gave up despite the serious injury, it must also be noted that he was also hampered by a far from optimal athletic condition. After two years of inactivity, the puncher of Mexican descent stepped into the ring with the second-highest weight ever recorded in his career, which certainly did not help him in terms of stamina and mobility.
Jarrell Miller, for his part, has nothing to reproach himself for, having given his all despite the technical limitations that characterize him and that, at 36 years old, he will hardly be able to refine any further. The American is not overly subtle: he advances like a bulldozer, takes tremendous punches, and makes his opponent feel the full weight of his 305 pounds. Probably, given the high number of observers who saw him as the winner, Big Baby will soon get another important chance. An intriguing possibility from the writer’s perspective would be to put him against the aggressive German boxer Agit Kabayel, who, after overwhelming the favored Arslanbek Makhmudov and Frank Sanchez, is eager to return to the fray.