Still unbeaten and still on course, he believes, to become world heavyweight champion, Jared Anderson came through a pretty torrid test last night. In going the ten-round distance the first time, this courtesy of an in-shape and ready to cause the upset Charles Martin, the 23-year-old from Toledo, had his chin tested along with his stamina.
It was an exciting fight as well as a testing fight, and afterward, Anderson, 15-0(14), said he was pleased he had been taken the distance. Anderson might not have been as pleased about the way Martin, 29-4-1(26), cracked him with hefty shots, most notably, and worryingly if you were an Anderson supporter, in round five and right at the end of the final round.
But all fighters need the kind of testing affair Anderson came through last night, with even greats like Mike Tyson and George Foreman being given tough tests on the way up (the up-and-coming Tyson’s first real test coming against James Tillis, Foreman’s against Gregorio Peralta). Anderson now moves on, and he may fight twice more this year.
It could be Zhan Kossobutskiy next, the man who was originally set to fight Anderson last night only for a foul-up with his travel visa forcing him to pull out. Anderson says he is ready for guys in the top 10. Maybe. 37-year-old Martin, a far better fighter than he appeared to be on that awful night against Anthony Joshua way back when said after last night’s fight that Anderson is definitely a future champion. Maybe.
It will be interesting to see if Anderson can go to the gym and improve on the defensive shortcomings some fans have been pointing to for some time. But against a veteran southpaw, a man who was fighting for his very career and was suitably motivated, Anderson, as the saying goes, ticked some boxes.
We now know Anderson can take a shot, we now know he has decent to good stamina, and we know that Anderson can carry his power with him into the later rounds, although he never got the stoppage win he most certainly did want no matter what he said afterward. But we also know Anderson is not that hard to hit and that his power, though more than respectable, may not be of the lights-out variety. Maybe.
In fact, maybe we were left with more questions than answers last night. Roll on Anderson’s next fight. Whatever you do think about him, it cannot be denied how exciting his fights are.
