Top Rank will slowly bring heavyweight Jared Anderson back, matching him against Marios Kollias (12-3-1, 10 KOs) on February 14th at the Hula Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. The two fighters will be fighting on the undercard of WBO lightweight champion Denys Berinchyk vs. Keyshawn Davis.
Anderson (17-1, 15 KOs) was knocked out in his step-up fight by Martin Bakole on August 3rd last year, and he was not ready for that kind of opponent at 25 years old. Bakole dropped Jared in the first round and twice more in the fifth to get the knockout.
Style Change Needed
If Anderson had chosen to box more rather than fight aggressively, he would have had a chance of going the distance and possibly winning. He outboxed Bakole in rounds two through four but was caught in the fifth once again and taken out.
Matching Anderson against Kollias, 33, makes sense to rebuild him before stepping him up later against world-level opposition. Anderson’s weak punch resistance will likely continue to be a problem no matter how many rebuilding fights Top Rank gives him.
If they keep Jared long-term with the idea of having him capture a heavyweight title at some point, they will have to change his style from a combination puncher to a pure boxer.
Charles Martin hurt him in their fight in 2023 and Jerry Forrest in 2022. After the Martin fight, Top Rank stepped Anderson back and matched him against the 40-year-old Andrii Rudenko and Ryad Merhy. He performed well against those guys.
Future Uncertain
However, when Anderson fought Bakole, he was just as poor as he had been against Martin and Forrest. There was no improvement. This suggests that Anderson is flawed and will not have much of a future beyond being a gatekeeper.
The best his promoters can hope for is to get lucky and have him fight one of the popular aging British heavyweights, Anthony Joshua or Tyson Fury, before they retire. That’s unlikely, but Jared is worth keeping around for a little while to see if he improves. If not, it’s no great loss.
Lance Pugmire @pugboxing is the one who reported the news of Jared Anderson coming back against Marios Kollias.
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