Jarrell Miller won’t fight Derek Chisora as promotional dispute continues

The long and tumultuous relationship between Jarrell Miller and promoter Dmitriy Salita has bubbled up with another conflict – this time over a fight “Big Baby” was hoping to have with fellow heavyweight Derek Chisora in 2025.

Just days ago, it was reported that Miller vs Chisora could take place February 8 in Manchester.

That’s no longer the case.

“The fight with Chisora is off,” Miller posted on Instagram on Tuesday. “Chisora is a good dude. He wants to fight. I want to fight. The fight is off because of this little piece of shit named Dmitry Salita, the dirtiest human being I’ve ever met in my entire life, and I’ve been around a lot of dirty motherfuckers. But Salita is the worst human being that’s ever walked the planet. Him and his dirty-ass lawyer, John Wirt, are compulsive liars. My contract is up with them, but he’s exercising his first and last right of refusal and blatantly made up an entire story to try to get more money out of it.”

Miller said he also had to negotiate fights on his own behalf and criticized Salita for using Miller’s name to sign other fighters into his promotional company.

Salita responded with a statement sent via text from his publicist.

“I’ve promoted Jarrell Miller since the start of his career. Together we have achieved career high paydays for him, secured fights for him on every major broadcaster in the sport: HBO, Showtime, DAZN and (almost) ESPN. We secured a would-be life-changing opportunity for him to face Anthony Joshua. Most recently, we were disappointed to learn that he turned down the fight with Derek Chisora.

“For him to imply that I am a liar and a cheat, among other things, is not only categorically false, it is also hurtful personally and professionally. As a former professional fighter – having been on his side of the business for many years of my career – I pride myself on making sure Salita Promotions always does the right thing by the fighter. That will not change. And the fact is that I have honored my agreement with Jarrell from day [one] through today. And he should do the same.”

BoxingScene asked Salita about his promotion’s stance that Miller turned down the fight with Chisora, given that Miller said it was Salita’s company that prevented it from happening.

“I cannot go into the finer points of our agreement, but the fact is that Jarrell had the opportunity on two occasions in the past few days to say yes to the fight with Chesora and he refused,” Salita responded via a text from his publicist. “I fully supported the making of that matchup. And my whole team is disappointed that it was turned down.”

Miller has worked with Salita’s promotional company, now called Salita Promotions, for a long time. According to BoxRec, their first fight together was in 2011, in Miller’s second pro bout, back when Salita’s company was known as Star of David Promotions. In 2014, Miller signed a contract with the company, entering a co-promotional agreement with Star of David and Greg Cohen Promotions.

The relationship had apparently soured by 2016. Miller asserted that he was a free agent. Salita countered that this was not true. Miller remained with Salita and Cohen and continued to work his way toward a title shot.

And Miller landed one in 2019, signing to fight Anthony Joshua for three heavyweight titles. And then Miller tested positive for multiple banned substances and was pulled from the match. Instead, Andy Ruiz scored the payday, notched a stunning upset over Joshua and took home the belts. 

This wasn’t Miller’s first time running afoul of drug tests either. He had also tested positive for a banned substance while competing as a kickboxer in 2014. Nor would it be his last time. He also failed a drug test ahead of a scheduled July 2020 bout with Jerry Forrest.

By the time of the Forrest fight, Miller had added a third promoter, Top Rank. But even that deal, announced in January 2020, wasn’t without drama.

“The three promoters, Miller and his new manager, James Prince, had finally agreed to all the terms and were due to sign the agreement,” boxing reporter Dan Rafael, then with ESPN, wrote at the time. “But after all the details had been ironed out, Salita went back to Top Rank chairman Bob Arum in an attempt to renegotiate elements of the agreement, multiple sources with knowledge of the situation told ESPN. An irate Arum washed his hands of the deal, but cooler heads eventually prevailed and they signed the original agreement. Miller was so upset by the situation in Atlantic City that, according to sources, he had a physical altercation with Salita, who has promoted Miller since early in his pro career in what has long been a rocky relationship.”

Miller returned to the ring in 2022 with a pair of victories. In March 2023, Miller defeated Lucas Browne on a show in the United Arab Emirates. By April 2023, he spoke of wanting to leave Salita.

In November 2023, Salita won a court case against Miller and was awarded more than $4.8 million in damages. Salita had accused Miller of breaching their promotional agreement, according to Scott Shaffer of BoxingTalk.com.

“Salita alleged that Miller breached the promotional contract by violating the agreement’s anti-doping provisions and also for making disparaging and derogatory statements about Salita,” Shaffer wrote. “[The court] took the amount Salita would have received for fighting Joshuia, and then averaged potential outcomes based on Miller defeating or losing to Joshua.”

The hits kept coming for Miller. In December 2023, he suffered his first pro loss, getting stopped in the final seconds of his fight with Daniel Dubois in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

This past January, Miller was arrested and accused of stealing a truck via carjacking at a dealership in Florida. In April, prosecutors declined to pursue the case further, according to court records reviewed by BoxingScene.

Miller last boxed in August, fighting Andy Ruiz to a draw on the undercard of Israil Madrimov vs Terence Crawford in Los Angeles. The 36-year-old Miller is now 26-1-2 (22 KOs).

BoxingScene staff writer Lucas Ketelle contributed to the reporting on this story.

David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2 and @UnitedBoxingPod. He is the co-host of the United Boxing Podcast. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.