Former fighter turned promoter Dmitry Salita is trying to drum up interest in a fight between his heavyweight, the disgraced “Big Baby” that is Jarrell Miller, and former two-time (he hopes to become a three-time ruler) heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua.
As fans surely recall, AJ was to have defended his belts against the unbeaten Miller back in June of 2019, only for Miller to test positive for more than one illegal substance, this ending the fight and with it, for many months, Miller’s career. Miller has come back since, winning two fights against so-so opposition, but now Salita is trying to tell us that, after one more tune-up fight, Miller and Joshua can settle their “unfinished business.”
“Jarell needs maybe one more fight to be ready for Joshua,” Salita told BoyleSports Boxing. “Look at Tyson Fury, he had two very mediocre fights before he fought Deontay Wilder and gave him the fight of his life. There’s definitely some unfinished business. I saw Eddie [Hearn] say that Joshua will fight in December whether he wins or loses (the return with Usyk). Obviously, there’s a lot of bad blood between Jarrell and AJ. ‘Unfinished Business,’ that could be the perfect title of the fight. It’s the perfect fallback plan if Usyk wins and Joshua needs a monstrous comeback fight in December with global appeal.”
But would a Joshua-Miller fight really be one that has “global appeal?” Another good question (and you may have many more considering this would-be idea of a fight that is the brainchild of a, shall we say, creative promoter) is, does Miller DESERVE such a fight, and with it the hefty payday that would come with it? It’s not too long ago that Miller was pumping himself full of ‘things’ that would ‘help’ him in the fight with Joshua; this something Hearn has never forgotten (to say nothing of the fact that Hearn says Miller still owes him a decent chunk of cash).
Would Joshua even entertain the idea of giving Miller this fight, even if he did lose the sequel with Usyk? Don’t bet on it. And would Hearn ever want to work with Miller again after what he pulled, or tried to pull? Again, don’t put money on it. Hey, you can’t really blame Salita for trying, and for keeping his fighter’s name out there.