Jared Anderson called it perfectly after his easy win over Ryad Merhy in Corpus Christi on Saturday night – “an ugly night of boxing”.
You cannot blame ‘Real Big Baby’ for that fact though – the 24-year-old did all he had to do in cruising past former WBA cruiserweight king with a virtual shutout on the big Top Rank show (live on ESPN and Sky Sports).
The scorecards were utterly one-sided 100-90 twice and 99-91 – the only surprise being that one of the ringside judges managed to find a round for the 31-year-old Merhy (now 32-3).
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Merhy was strangely becalmed for almost the entire evening – operating defensively behind a high guard and finding it almost impossible to let his hands go against a much taller opponent.
Anderson though, putting those legal troubles behind him, showed steely focus and patience to box studiously behind a ramrod job, dominating round after round without anything coming back at him. It was enough to improve his record to 17-0, and also earned him a place in the top 10 of our heavyweight rankings. He was already ranked #5 by the WBC and #7 by Ring magazine.
Jared Anderson on Merhy rout
Afterwards the 24-year-old prodigy from Toledo, Ohio was clearly frustrated by his opponent’s lack of ambition, explaining: “Another day, another night in the office. I wanted to give the fans a better show but what can you do when they don’t wanna show up just to fight like you.
“Ten rounds, that’s the biggest takeaway. I gotta make some changes, I made some mistakes, I got hit with a few punches – I shouldn’t have got hit at all. He didn’t even come to fight so I shouldn’t have got hit at all.
“The fans, as much as I love them, they can’t take care of me if I get hurt, or I get brain damage or something. So my goal is to get hit the least, so that’s what I tried to do tonight, I tried to get hit the least and just win. It was an ugly night of boxing man, but I got the W, so we move on.
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“Anybody who come in here and put their life on the line, I take my hat off to you, but I just wish you would have come for a better fight – we could have gave the fans a better show.”
Now the drums will start to beat ever louder for Anderson to move up to elite class at a time when big fights are being made all over the place and the heavyweight division is booming. The man himself is absolutely ready for that.
When asked who he wanted next, he answered: “All of them, if I’m ranked with you and your name is near mine, we can get it cracking man. We’re coming to knock everybody off. We’re coming for those titles and we’re coming to f***ing win.”
