Roughly 1,000 pounds of heavyweight boxers will roll into the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on ESPN Saturday evening. In the 10-round main event, Toledo native Jared “The Real Big Baby” Anderson (15-0, 14 KOs) looks to notch his second victory in as many months against Andriy Rudenko (35-6, 21 KOs). The 10-round co-feature will see Nigerian knockout artist Efe Ajagba (17-1, 13 KOs) seek to end the unbeaten run of southpaw puncher Zhan Kossobutskiy (19-0, 18 KOs). At Thursday’s press conference, this is what the fighters had to say:
Jared Anderson: “This Saturday you will see me sticking to my plan. I’ll be using my jab, my speed. I’m always willing to do whatever I need to do in order to win. And I will continue being who I am because I am great.”
Andriy Rudenko: “I know that my opponent is one of the best heavyweight prospects right now. I will show you what my plans are for stopping him this Saturday in the ring.”
Efe Ajagba: “I will do everything possible to win the fight…I want to thank him for accepting the fight. I’ve been training hard for this fight because I know who he is. I will get things done on Saturday night.”
Zhan Kossobutskiy: “I’m very happy to have this fight. I have faced very strong opposition. It’s been a lot better for my career to have fought strong opposition. I believe the same is the case with my opponent for this Saturday.”
The fight of Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist Bakhodir Jalolov (12-0, 12 KOs) will stream live on Top Rank’s YouTube channel Saturday at 6:15PM ET.
How much better would this card be if Ajagba or Zhan was facing Anderson? Rudenko is a trial-horse— not a bad fighter by any means, but nothing special. It feels like Anderson’s people are still feeding him and not sure if they want to push him.
He seems to be moving at the correct pace given his last performance. I speak from the probable point of view of his management. As a fan, a few steps up would be what I’m into.
The two fighters that interest me on this card are Jalolov 12-0 12 KO’s and Kossobutskiy 19-0 18 KO’s.
Weak opponent for a top prospect. However, we all saw that Anderson is Not there yet. (In his last Fight against Martin)
Lol Wladimir Klistchko was fighting the same type of opponents when he was 23 years old. That is how boxing works kid
Sorry, no it doesn’t when you a supposedly a top prospect on the cusp of winning belts according to Anderson. Kid.
Hopefully Anderson will progress in the development of his skills to become a world-class fighter, because boxing needs new blood with urgency at heavyweight. Five years ago, the heavyweight division was packed with a group of solid fighters that were involved in some very exciting fights; unfortunately, most of that is gone, and today there are not many interesting fights to be made with those fighters, some of them soon to be retired and others badly defeated. Do not get me wrong, but I strongly believe Usyk and Fury are not the ones that can keep boxing alive or relevant, as could be a boxer like Mike Tyson or even Lennox Lewis; sadly, there is nothing like that on the horizon, not yet.
I don’t know if I agree with that. There’s always interesting fighters on the horizon. Anderson, Jalolov, and Makhmudov are all new-ish fighters with big upside. Hrgovic and Kossobutskiy are also undefeated. The Romford Bull is developing, although I’m not sure he’s good enough. The hard thing for boxing is that these top guys stay so far away from each other that you never know what each guy’s actually got.
Anderson in 3
Hopefully next time Anderson don’t fight to another Uber driver
Ajagba is in deep trouble.
Agree! Zhan reminds me of David Tua or maybe a heavyweight version of GGG
I have Zhan in this one too, maybe 7-3 or 8-2 if I had to guess. Just see Ajagba being out of position all night, and getting drilled with that left hand. Ajagba will likely be getting absolutely hammered to the body in this one as well. Should be an easy UD win for Zhan unless there’s a chin/stamina issue that hasn’t been exposed in him yet.
A decent card and hopefully I’ll get it on my ESPN feed. Probably watch Usyk-DuBois card first.
Anderson reminds me of a young brash Cassius Clay, confident in his abilities and defeating his opponents thus far convincingly.
However time will tell when he eventually faces a top 5 ranked opponent. He has faith in his team and seemingly no distractions…..who knows?
Ajagba is the only one willing to step up. Sure he lost to Sanchez, but he steps up again in this fight. Don’t see Anderson and Jalolov ever making it to the top. But, must not complain, it’s great seeing all this activity and fights happening in the heavyweight division.
This is a good test for Zhan as Ajagba has crushing power and good experience. The winner of these two fights needs to square off next for an eliminator spot.
.Efe Ajagba will put the first L on Zhan Kossobutskiy’s record. Efe Ajagba is the better man in this fight and, by a wide margin, the best opponent Zhan Kossobutskiy has ever faced, but despite that, this is a good and most likely entertaining matchup.
Looking at Andersons last performance, he is nothing more than a novice at this point, needs a.couple of years to develop.
the love / hate of “boxing” is fights like this happening. Hey I know, how about a “womens fight” where one has a tiny weenie and can actually throw a somewhat combination against a bartender with three kids from Dallas with a “record ” of 10 and 6 with one knockout when her pregnant opponent had to tap out when delivering between rounds three and four…fuck me