Along with WBA/IBF/WBO heavyweight ruler Anthony Joshua, promoter Eddie Hearn is also guiding unbeaten New Yorker Jarrell Miller. Miller made quite a splash at yesterday’s big DAZN/Joshua-Povetkin presser in his hometown, squaring up with AJ, the two exchanging insults.
Seeing the potential for a big fight, one he says “a lot of people will call for now,” Hearn is eyeing up making a Joshua-Miller showdown. If the big one we all want to see between Joshua and Deontay Wilder cannot/will not get made – and providing both AJ and “Big Baby” win their upcoming fights – it seems quite likely we could see this one go down in filling Joshua’s next date at Wembley; April 22.
Miller may have claimed a secondary belt by then. The word is Miller will face Polish warrior Artur Szpilka in Chicago on October 6 – he spoke briefly on the subject after yesterday’s confrontation with AJ, as filmed by Fight Hype, and Miller said he will beat Szpilka up “worse that Adam Kownacki did” – and then the winner of the Manuel Charr-Fres Oquendo fight.
Oquendo will challenge Charr for his version of the WBA heavyweight belt in September and Miller could, according to Hearn, either face the winner or go straight into the big one with Joshua. With all due respect to Szpilka and to Charr and Oquendo, neither man seems capable of halting the Miller Express. It’s time to see just how good the 20-0-1(18) Miller really is and a big fight with Joshua would tell us.
Against Szpilka, 21-3(15) Miller will face a decent enough fighter who has been in with Wilder (being iced in brutal fashion). In fact, there is already chatter over how Miller is becoming known as a fighter who gets it on with “Wilder’s leftovers.” Miller has boxed Gerald Washington and Johan Duhaupas, both of whom having been in there with the WBC champ, and now it will be Szpilka.
Still, as long as he’s staying active and as long as he continues entertaining us the way he does, Miller will get his shot in time. He could be just two fights and two wins – preferably KO wins – away from a Wembley collision with Joshua. This is when we will see if Miller can walk the walk the way he talks the talk.
