Heavyweight Jared Anderson and his opponent Ryad Merhy weighed in today for their 10-round headliner this Saturday, April 13th, at the American Bank Center (Corpus Christi, Texas). Anderson (16-0, 15 KOs) weighed 250.9 lbs, and Merhy (32-2, 26 KOs) weighed 235.6 lbs. The event will be shown on ESPN, ESPN+, and ESPN Deportes at 10 p.m. ET/ 7 pm PT.
It’s difficult to know how the 24-year-old Anderson will look in this fight. He was hurt several times in his fight against veteran Charles Martin last year, and his promoters at Top Rank reacted by matching him against a weaker opponent in his last fight.
Merhy is a complete unknown, which suggests that Top Rank still doesn’t want to put Anderson in with anyone good for fear of him crumbling. They will have to do it eventually because they can’t continue to baby him forever.
Jared doesn’t seem to have the mental makeup to go far in the sport, and Top Rank’s continuing to feed him weak opposition in hopes that he’ll improve will not help.
Anderson’s weight could be an issue in this fight, as he’s 21 lbs heavier than he was in his last contest against 40-year-old Andriy Rudenko last year. He’s been eating well, and that could be a bad thing for him if he can’t knock out Merhy.
Main Card weights
Jared Anderson 250.9 vs. Ryad Merhy 235.6
Efe Ajagba 241.2 vs. Guido Vianello 244.5
Robson Conceição 131.6 lbs vs. Jose Guardado 131.5
Preliminary Card weights
Julian Delgado 159.3 vs. Juan Tamez 159
Ruben Villa 125.6 vs. Cristian Cruz 125.1
John Rincon 143 vs. Yainel Alvarez 143.5
Abdullah Mason 134.6 vs. Ronal Ron 134.7
Charly Suarez 131.8 vs. Louie Coria 131.7
Jalen Walker 131.2 vs. Alejandro Guerrero 131.8
Ali Feliz 219.1 vs. Anthony Woodson III 280.2
Ajagba vs. Vianello: A Crossroads Fight
Heavyweight contender Efe Ajagba (19-1, 14 KOs) weighed 241.2 lbs for his ten-round fight against 2016 Olympian Guido Vianello (12-1, 10 KOs), who weighed in at 244.5 lbs.
The fact that Top Rank matches these two guys together suggests they may be looking to see which one is worth keeping. Both guys have suffered losses already, and it’s pretty clear that neither can win a world title.
Ajagba has huge power, but he lacks skills and is a knockout waiting to happen. Frank Sanchez taught Ajagba a boxing lesson in his one-sided 10-round unanimous decision in 2021.
The 29-year-old Ajagba has won four fights since against weak opposition. He doesn’t appear to have improved, though. Ajagba is winning again but only because Top Rank is matching him against the same type of fodder they were feeding him before his loss to Sanchez.
