By Ian S Palmer
There’s a 10-round heavyweight tilt on tap this Saturday, July 29th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York as Jarrell Miller will be taking on fellow American Gerald Washington of San Jose, California in Miller’s hometown. The bout can be seen live in the U.S. on the Showtime network while fans in the UK can catch the action on Sky Sports. Miller’s last fight took place in last August when he stopped Fred Kassi after the third round. Washington’s last outing was a fifth-round knockout loss to WBC Heavyweight Champ Deontay Wilder in February.
The 29-year-old Miller will enter the ring with near-perfect record of 18-1 along with 16 Kos while the 35-year-old Washington is 18-1-1 and has 12 Kos to his name. Miller is a decent-sized heavyweight at 6-feet-4-inches tall with a reach of 78 inches, but is still the smaller man here. He’s a former kickboxer who’s now a legitimate top-10 contender as a heavyweight. Miller has better-than-average power as his knockout ratio currently stands at 84 per cent and he’s knocked out his last seven opponents.
However, Miller hasn’t really fought any top-ranked foes as of yet as his wins have been against boxers such as Akhror Muralimov and Donovan Dennis with his toughest foe being and Kassi. The lone blemish on his record so far is a four-round draw against Joey Dawelko in 2013. Miller simply isn’t interested in letting the judges decide the outcome of his contests as he’d prefer to let his power punches end the fights. The tactic has worked well so far and his chin seems to be pretty good.
Washington’s the bigger boxer here though as he’s 6-feet-6-inches tall and has a wingspan of 82 inches, giving him a two-inch edge in height and a four-inch advantage in reach. He also has good power with a current knockout ratio of 60 per cent. However, his chin didn’t hold up against Wilder. Washington also has the edge in experience as he’s fought 83 rounds since turning pro in 2012 and Miller has 54 rounds under his belt since 2009.
Washington has also taken on some recognizable names in the heavyweight division such as Wilder, Ray Austin, Eddie Chambers, Jason Gavern, Nagy Aguilera, Sherman Williams and Travis Walker. His draw was a 10-round affair with Amir Mansour in October of 2015. Washington is a former football player and member of the U.S. Navy didn’t, but didn’t turn pro until he was 30 years old. However, he’s beaten some decent opponents up to now.
Prediction…
Washington needs to land something hard and heavy before Miller does to regain some of the confidence he lost in the Wilder fight. He needs to keep Miller on the back foot so he’s not allowed to take the fight to Washington. Most fans are expecting a knockout here and will probably get one as both men are powerful punchers. I think Washington is the better boxer here, but he’s going to need a solid chin to pull this out.
