Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller isn’t just planning on showing up to get a paycheck against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on June 1. Miller (23-0-1, 20 KOs) says he’s going to beat Joshua (22-0, 21 KOs) and use his weight advantage to run him over in their fight at Madison Square Garden in New York.
According to Miller, Joshua has no way of preparing for a fighter like him, because there’s nobody built like him that he can train with to get him ready for this fight.
This could be a real nightmare for Joshua, 29, if he can’t find a way to keep ‘Big Baby’ Miller off of him. In Joshua’s fight against former World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Joseph Parker last March, he was able to escape his pressure with the help of referee Guiseppe Quarterone, who prevented both guys from fighting in close, and that enabled him to use his reach to box from the outside. Miller, 6’4”, will need to get in close range for him to land his bombs. He’s not going to be able to beat Joshua if he’s forced to jab him and throw long power shots. Joshua doesn’t throw long power shots either. He’s more of a medium range slugger unless he feels his opponent is a threat to him. If that’s the situation, Joshua will try and jab. That’s likely what Joshua will do against Miller.
”That’s the main goal – run him over. I’m not playing no games with AJ,” Miller said to skysports.com about Joshua. ”There’s no way to prepare for me. There’s no right way for preparing for a person like me.”
If Joshua can’t handle the pressure and the size of Miller, he’s going to get knocked out for sure on June 1. The crowd will be cheering for Miller, which is going to be something that Joshua is going to have to come to terms with. Joshua is used to only the crowd cheering for him at the expense of his opponent. In this fight, Miller is going to have a lot of his boxing fans rooting for him once he starts landing shots and going on the attack. Joshua is going to need to understand that he’s not fighting his backyard anymore. This is an away fight for him. Although a lot of Brits will make the trek to see Joshua on June 1 in New York, most of the boxing fans at ringside will be Miller’s.
It’s going to require a lot of adjustments for Joshua to handle the steady pressure, huge size and the high punch output of Miller. Joshua empties his gas tank when he throws even a moderate amount of punches during a round. We’ve seen Joshua gas out in fights against Dillian Whyte and Wladimir Klitschko before. All those guys did was make Joshua fight hard for a portion of the round. Joshua had nothing left after throwing a dozen power shots in both fights. Good heavyweights are able to recover in between rounds, and come back strong in the next round. In both fights, Joshua remained tired for several rounds after. He still won the fights, but only because Whyte was injured and Wladimir seemingly too afraid to try and finish him.
Miller is comparing Joshua, who resembles an amateur bodybuilder, to the heavily muscled Frank Bruno, when he came to the U.S and took on Mike Tyson in five rounds in 1989.
“Like a Frank Bruno, he came in, he looked good, and got flattened,” said Miller.
Joshua, 29, is a much better fighter than Frank Bruno was when he took on Tyson for the first of two times. Joshua has talent, and he’s capable of throwing a lot of shots with mean intentions on it. What Joshua has going against him is his chin isn’t very good, and he gasses out quickly if he’s forced to fight hard, and he’s unable to score a quick knockout in those circumstances. If Miller forces Joshua into a dogfight, he could knock him out if he gases. Joshua is vulnerable to losing to anybody if he gasses. If you take a look at how bad Joshua looked after the 6th round against 40-year-old Wladimir in 2017, it’s easy to see Miller scoring a knockout over him if he gets him in the same position on June 1.
Miller could make a small fortune if he pulls off the upset against Joshua and sends him reeling for his first career defeat. It would ensure that Miller gets a big payday in the rematch, and it could lead potentially to trilogy at some point. What Joshua’s fights against Carlos Takam, Joseph Parker, Wladimir and Whyte has shown is he’s not unbeatable. He could have lost all those fights. Joshua’s gold medal in the 2012 Olympics was a competition where he appeared to lose several of the fights, which took place in London. Miller is a good enough fighter to expose Joshua’s weaknesses in the chin and stamina department. Miller is ahead of the game in knowing what the flaws are in Joshua’s game. With Miller’s high volume workrate, he’s got the game to do a number on Joshua if he can get to him and handle his big power shots. Joshua throws hard when he’s fresh, but like a bodybuilder type fighters, he quickly loses steam on his shots when he gets tired and is forced to fight hard.
Joshua vs. Miller will be shown on DAZN in the States, and on Sky Box Office PPV in the UK.
