Unbeaten American heavyweight Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller (19-0-1, 17 KOs) is hoping to get a fight against former Anthony Joshua victim Dillian Whyte (19-1, 15 KOs) in the U.S. Miller believes he’ll knock Whyte out if that fight happens.
Miller has been interested in fighting Whyte for some time, but he’s had no luck in getting him inside the ring. Whyte, 29, isn’t the one that makes his fights. His promoter Eddie Hearn is the match-maker for Whyte, and he’s been cool to the idea of putting him in with the 6’4” Miller.
Hearn wants to roll the dice by making a fight between Whyte and WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder. Unfortunately, Hearn hasn’t given Wilder his asking price of $7 million. That fight is not going to happen next anyway, because Wilder has a mandatory defense against #1 WBC Bermane Stiverne that needs to get out of the way first before he looks to make a voluntary defense.
”I would knock Dillian out way worse than Anthony Joshua did. I guarantee you that,” said Miller to skysports.com. “Dillian can say what he wants but he doesn’t want to see me in the ring. I can promise you that.”
Whyte does not seem to be trying to get the fight with Miller for some reason. I don’t know why, but Whyte just does not seem excited about that fight. Whyte was scheduled to fight 44-year-old Michael Grant on the undercard of the Terence Crawford vs. Julius Indongo card on ESPN on August 19 at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska. Whyte vs. Grant would have been a laughing stock if that fight had taken place. The fight is no longer happening, but it shows you the kind of opposition that Hearn is pouring through in search for just the right opponent for Whyte. It looks to me that Hearn is going to match Whyte softly until he can get him a title shot against Wilder by making him an offer he can’t refuse.
Putting Whyte in with a slugger like Miller could spoil everything, because this guy is like a bigger, stronger and more improved version of Dereck Chisora. Whyte went life and death with Chisora last December in winning a controversial 12 round split decision in London, UK. Facing a bigger and stronger version of Chisora would be a step too far for Whyte in my opinion. I couldn’t see him getting past a talent like Miller. It’s too bad. What happened to the old days where fighters wanted to fight the best in order to earn a title shot against a champion? Things seem to be upside down now where fighters take soft fights and then look to get a title shot one or another.
Miller looked out of this world good in stopping former heavyweight champion Gerald Washington in the 8th round last Saturday night on July 29 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The two giant heavyweights squared off on the Adrien Broner vs. Mikey Garcia card, and they stole the show with their exciting fight. It was an excellent battle. Miller came into the fight a little heavyweight after weighing 298 lbs. at the weigh-in the day before the fight.
Miller walked through everything Washington threw at him, and had him looking tired by the 2nd round. Washington had a good round in the 6th in which he landed a lot of heavy shots on the chin of Miller, but it didn’t slow him down. Miller came on strong at the end of the round to hurt Washington. For all intents and purposes, Washington was done by the end of the 6th. He was a punching bag in the 7th and 8th rounds. He was tired and hurt.
“I guarantee you that Dillian would have a harder time with Washington than I did,” said Miller.
In fairness to Whyte, I think he’d knockout Washington too, but I could see the fight going 10 rounds at least, and I think it would be a much harder fight for him than it was for Miller. Whyte doesn’t have a good left anymore since having shoulder surgery on his left arm after his loss to Anthony Joshua in 2015. Whyte has a decent right hand, but it’s not a great one. He doesn’t have the excellent punching power that we see from many heavyweights in the division.
Whyte is mostly just a guy that throws a lot of right hands, and who takes a good shot. I don’t rate Whyte as being in the same class as some of the better heavyweight contenders in the division like Luis Ortiz, David Haye, Kubrat Pulev, Charles Martin, Dominic Breazeale, Andy Ruiz and Alexander Povetkin.
I rate the newcomers Joe Joyce, Tony Yoka and Daniel Dubois as already better fighters than Whyte. I don’t know how many years it’s going to be before they step it up, but hopefully soon. The heavyweight division needs new blood. Joyce, a 2016 Olympic super heavyweight silver medalist, is going to need to be moved a little quicker than other fighters starting out, as he’s 31-years-old and he cannot afford to be brought along on a 7 to 10-year plan like we see with many fighters starting out. The 6’6” Joyce would be a step too far for Whyte right now if that fight got made, which it obviously won’t. If Whyte isn’t showing interest in fighting Miller, then why would he want to tangle with a guy like Joyce?
Miller is probably going to have to keep fighting and getting the best opposition he can. It was nice that his promoter was able to get him a fight against Washington, because I could see how a lot of top contenders would want nothing to do with him. Miller will need to keep winning against the best opponents possible, and wait for the sanctioning bodies to eventually rank him at No.1 as a mandatory challenger before he’ll get a title shot.
Miller wants to fight Joshua, and he believes he’s got the talent to defeat him. Miller would need to be in better shape than he was last Saturday night for him to defeat the likes of Joshua. Miller will likely need to wait until he’s Joshua’s No.1 IBF or WBA contender before he gets a shot against him. Joshua has back to back title defenses against mandatory challengers in Kubrat Pulev and Luis Ortiz. Before those guys became Joshua’s mandatory challengers, they had no hope of getting a fight against him.
Hearn made no mention of either of them as guys he would like to put Joshua in with in a voluntary defense. I think it’s going to be the same thing with Miller. He’ll get a title shot once he becomes Joshua’s mandatory and not before then. Miller’s promoter likely won’t be able to make a huge offer to get him a title shot in a voluntary defense like how Hearn is trying to do to get Whyte a crack at Wilder’s World Boxing Council title by making a huge offer to him.
Miller is ranked #7 IBF, #7 WBA, and #7 WBO. We’re probably looking at Miller needing to wait at least another 2 years before he gets a title shot unless he can knock off one of the top 5 contenders to get pushed to the No.1 spot overnight. I’m still trying to figure out why the World Boxing Organization pushed Hughie Fury to No.1 in their ratings. I don’t understand that ranking at all.
Hughie hasn’t fought in over a year since his 7th round technical decision win over journeyman Fred Kassi on April 30, 2016. How does beating Kassi make Hughie No.1 in the WBO’s rankings? Miller stopped Kassi in the 3rd round last year in August 2016, and he’s only ranked #7 with the WBO. If you look at Miller’s performance against Kassi and compare it to the performance from Hughie against the same fighter, there’s no comparison. Miller was much more dominant in beating him. Hughie is fighting WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker next month on September 23 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. So, Hughie gets a title shot against Parker for beating Kassi by a 7th round technical decision, while Miller finds himself rated No.7 with the same sanctioning body despite doing a better job of beating Kassi. It shows me that Miller is not going to have it easy getting ranked quickly by the sanctioning bodies. He’s going to need to keep pushing hard, and beating the best opponents he can.