Heavyweight contender Jared Anderson is a late addition to the Denys Berinchyk vs. Keyshawn Davis card for Friday, February 14th, at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. The event will be shown live on ESPN+.
Anderson (17-1, 15 KOs) will fight Marios Kollias (12-3-1, 10 KOs) in a 10-round fight. This fight is designed to help 25-year-old Jared regain his confidence after his debacle against Martin Bakole on August 3rd. Anderson was knocked out in the fifth round.
If Anderson’s chin has been compromised by his loss to Bakole, Kollias could expose that on February 14th. He’ll certainly be trying to test it. What will be really interesting is to see what Top Rank will do if Jared loses this fight by knockout. Do they keep him or cut ties?
What Top Rank learned from that fight is that Anderson needs more development against lower-level opposition before he’ll be ready to tackle world-class fighters. He may not ever be, but Top Rank needs to give him a chance to improve.
Anderson had been viewed as the best American heavyweight, and he was seen as the replacement for Tyson Fury for Top Rank as their next world champion. The loss to Bakole foiled those plans for now.
It’ll be interesting to see if Anderson has the same aggressive fighting style as he had before his loss to Bakole. If he’s going to change his style to become more of a boxer, he might not be as effective. The best thing he had going for him was his offense. When he would box, he would get nailed occasionally, and that made some of his fights scary to watch.
In the main event on the February 14th card, 2020 Olympic silver medalist Keyshawn Davis challenges Denys Berinchyk for his WBO lightweight title. This is Keyshawn’s first shot at a world title, and it’s best chance of winning a belt.
On the undercard, junior middleweight contender Xander Zayas (20-0, 12 KOs) fights Slawa Spomer (20-0, 11 KO) in a 10-round fight.
