It’s the softly-spoken champ against the ever-vocal challenger. It’s a Big Baby against AJ. It’s undefeated versus undefeated. It’s Anthony Joshua against Jarrell Miller. It will go down on June 1 in New York (live on DAZN) yet most fans are unsure when it comes to exactly what will go down. What to make of the upcoming fight that will see the enormously popular (in the UK) Joshua box his U.S debut?
Miller has, it must be said, talked his way into the fight; that and he has benefited from the fact that, for whatever reason or reasons, talks to try and make either a Joshua/Tyson Fury or a Joshua-Deontay Wilder fight came to zero (for now anyway). Miller, literally the right man in the right place at the right time, has done his bit to hype the fight – “I’m a gonna do this, I’m a gonna do that, and on and on….” – and the fight will sell.
Forget that with one UK bookmaker you can see Miller listed as a whopping 10/1 dog, the fight will sell. And what if, just maybe, Miller wins the fight? Would that forever ruin our chances of seeing AJ in there with Wilder and Fury? Or, in a crazy way, would a Miller win on June 1 make those fight EASIER to make? It would be a big shock – not a massive shock, but a big shock – if Miller upset AJ and the plans Eddie Hearn has for his star fighter, but again, maybe it would be a good thing, for the fans at least, in that Joshua would have to go back to the drawing board so to speak and he would have to lower his demands substantially at the negotiating table.
Miller can fight. Despite his hefty poundage (315 or more) he has a good engine, he has deceptive hand and foot speed and he throws punches in bunches all night long. The problem is, Miller has not got lights out KO power, or an airtight defence, and heavyweight history has so often shown that, to be successful on the grand stage, a fighter needs one or the other. So how can Big Baby win?
Miller says he will “run over” AJ, that he will wear him down and get him out of there. It’s true Joshua has shown stamina issues in some of his fights yet he has always found a way to win, usually by landing some bombs and saving the day that way. Still, it wouldn’t be a monster shock if Miller, proving that yes, he does have a solid chin (Hearn for one has said that if Miller does have a great chin he will be a big problem for any heavyweight) managed to win a close decision. Or would it?
Again, it’s a pretty tough fight to call but as we know, in a heavyweight collision anything can happen. And a Miller win on June 1 really would shake up the division.
