Jared Anderson remains both unbeaten and, some believe, on his way to the very top. But “The Real Big Baby” is currently listening to a fair amount of criticism after his latest win. As fans know, the 24 year old won a wide, near shut-out ten round decision over a very reluctant Ryad Merhy last night. Anderson’s foe simply refused to let his hands go and engage during the ten hard to watch rounds, and Anderson won by lopsided scores of 100-90, 100-90, and 99-91.
Now 17-0(15), Toledo’s Anderson moves on to his next fight, which Bob Arum says will be a fight in Anderson’s hometown. Former cruiserweight titlist Merhy, who falls to 32-3(26) hasn’t got any fans asking where he goes next, so poor was the Belgian’s effort at doing anything other than surviving in Corpus Christie. If Merhy, a good and capable fighter, had let his hands go, who knows, we might have had a very interesting fight, not a snoozer.
But Anderson is taking some criticism himself today, whether this is actually fair or not. Gervonta Davis, for example, put up some very insulting and since deleted tweets whilst watching last night’s fight, with Tank referring to Anderson as a “dumb a**,” with Tank changing Anderson’s Big Baby name to “big s****y.”
Again, it was Merhy who refused to fight, with him reportedly landing just 34 punches out of the mere 144 he actually threw (this, according to Talk Sport, is the third fewest punches thrown in a fight since the arrival of CompuBox). Should Anderson be taking heat for not being able to get such a reluctant opponent out of there?
Anderson has now been taken the distance in two of his last three fights, and some critics are suggesting he may not be the big puncher he seemed to be earlier in his career when he was blowing guys out quickly. Anderson was given a tough time of things when he fought “Prince” Charles Martin back in July of last year, with Anderson taking some shots.
At age 24, Anderson still has a heck of a lot of time to fully develop and to reach his full potential. But Anderson cannot afford any more dull nights. Fans love a show as much as they love knockouts, and Anderson did promise us both going into last night’s fight. Again, it’s not all Anderson’s fault he was unable to deliver, but harsher critics don’t care about that, they are focusing on Anderson and on Anderson only.
Shakur Stevenson is a superb fighter who knows all about the way one or two dull fights/wins can turn off the fans. Heck, it even happened to the rampaging Mike Tyson, when his duller than dull affair with a survival-minded Bonecrusher Smith had some people laying into Tyson. Tyson won back the fans he lost due to the borefest with Smith, and then some. Now, Jared Anderson is in need of some fan-friendly, exciting wins.
But can Anderson get them? It sure will be interesting seeing who Arum matches Anderson up with next time out.