By Ian S Palmer
There’s a WBA Heavyweight eliminator on tap this Saturday, April 28th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York as undefeated Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller of the U.S. will be taking on Johann Duhaupas of France. The bout can be seen live in North America on HBO while fans in the UK can catch the action on Sky Sports. Miller’s last fight took place in November when he stopped Mariusz Wach in the ninth round while Duhaupas last fought in December when he stopped Newfel Ouatah after eight rounds.
The 29-year-old Miller of Brooklyn, New York will enter the ring with near-perfect record of 20-0-1 along with 18 Kos. He’s a decent-sized heavyweight at 6-feet-4-inches tall with a reach of 78 inches, but has entered the ring at close to 300 lbs in the past. He’s not the typical muscle-bound heavyweight, but his body shape has worked for him so far so he’s not expected to make any drastic changes in the near future. He’s also a former kickboxer who’s now a legitimate top-10 contender as a heavyweight.
Miller certainly has better-than-average power as his knockout ratio currently stands at 86 per cent.
He’s on a bit of a roll at the moment by knocking out his last nine opponents. Miller turned pro in 2009 and has 71 rounds under his belt since then. However, he hasn’t really fought any top-ranked Grade A foes as his wins have been against boxers such as Akhror Muralimov and Donovan Dennis with his toughest foes being Gerald Washington, Fred Kassi and Wach. The lone blemish on his record is a four-round draw against Joey Dawelko in 2013. Miller isn’t interested in letting the judges decide the outcome of his contests as he’d prefer to let his power punches do it. It’s worked well so far and his chin seems to be pretty good.
The 37-year-old Duhaupas is 37-4 with 24 Kos to his name. He enters the fight as the underdog even though he stands 6-feet-5-inches tall with an 82.5-inch reach and also has good power. He’s an inch taller than Miller and possesses a 4.5-inch reach advantage. The Frenchman turned pro in 2004 and has 212 rounds of experience under his belt. He has a current knockout ratio of 59 per cent, but is known to have heavy fists. His four losses have been to Erkan Teper and Francesco Pianeta by unanimous decisions and was stopped by Deontay Wilder in the 11th round and Alexander Povetkin in the sixth.
Duhaupas surprised some fans by lasting 11 rounds with Wilder, but he’s actually a pretty solid, albeit it an aging and slow heavyweight now. He’s beaten some pretty good opponents over the years such as Robert Helenius, Marcelo Luis Nascimento and Manuel Charr. His chin is questionable, but he’s taken a lot of heavy shots and stood up to them. However, he hasn’t been able to handle the hardest-hitting heavyweights such as Wilder and Povetkin.
Prediction…
Duhaupas’ has the power to make this an interesting and exciting fight while it lasts, but I think Miller will eventually walk through him and win by stoppage.
