By Ian S Palmer
There’s a 10-round heavyweight tilt on tap this Saturday, November 11th at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York as undefeated Jarrell Miller of the U.S. will be taking on Mariusz Wach of Poland. 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 July when he stopped Gerald Washington after eight rounds while Wach last fought in March and beat Erkan Teper by a 12-round unanimous decision.
The 29-year-old Miller of Brooklyn, New York will enter the ring with near-perfect record of 19-0-1 along with 17 Kos. 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 85 per cent and he’s knocked out his last eight opponents. He turned pro back in 2009 and has 62 rounds under his belt since then.
However, Miller hasn’t really fought any top-ranked Grade A foes as of yet as his wins have been against boxers such as Akhror Muralimov and Donovan Dennis with his toughest foes being Washington and Fred 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.
The 37-year-old Wach of Krakow is the bigger boxer here though as he’s just over 6-feet-7-inches tall and has a wingspan of 82 inches, giving him a three-inch edge in height and a four-inch advantage in reach. He isn’t really a power puncher though with a current knockout ratio of 49 per cent. He enters the ring with a record of 33-2 with 17 Kos. Wach turned pro in 2005 and has quite a bit of experience with 211 rounds. Wach’s two losses were to Alexander Povetkin by 12th-roiund TKO in 2015 as well as a unanimous decision to Wladimir Klitschko in 2012 in a world title fight.
Most of Wach’s other opponents have mainly been journeymen boxers with the most recognizable names being Kevin McBride, Tye Fields, Galen Brown, Jason Gavern, Julius Long, Arthur Cook, Travis walker and Marcelo Luiz Nascimento. Wach definitely has the size to pull off a mild upset, but he’ll have to catch Miller cold on the chin to do so. Wach has some power in his right hand and Miller will need to neutralize it, but Miller will need to work hard as Wach has a pretty good chin.
Prediction…
Wach’s best chance of winning is to use his size and reach advantage to keep miller to the outside as much as possible. I think sooner or later Miller will get inside though and wear him down. Wach is probably a forgotten and underrated heavyweight, but he’s not a young man anymore. If he can’t keep Miller on the back foot he’ll likely lose the fight though. Wach may be the better overall boxer, but Miller has the power and I expect Miller to win it.
