Cruiserweight and Heavyweight thread.

After having their scheduled August fight cancelled on the Jake Paul vs. Hasim Rahman Jr undercard, Jeremiah Milton (6-0-0) is scheduled to take on Quintin Sumpter (5-0-0) in a 6 round battle of unbeaten HW prospects on the Jake Paul vs Anderson Silva undercard. Milton would seem to be the favorite here but he was not all that impressive in his last fight against Nick Jones until he managed he catch his incautious opponent near the end of the 2nd round. Sumpter is still crude and takes a few rounds to settle in but he has shown some flashes of power.

 

A fight between Jarrell Miller (25-0-1) and Awadh Temim (15-5) is being finalized for November 4th in Dar-es- Salam. Temim has a reputation of being a big puncher in K-1...but his only notable fight as a boxer is a KO loss to Bogdan Dinu. Most of his 15 boxing wins are against Yemeni and Lebanonese fighters.

Thus, we will learn nothing from this fight - except that Dar-es-Salam is the capital city of Tanzania.

Miller was previously scheduled to fight Ebenezer Telleh on October 2nd in Kazakhstan. His fight had to be cancelled when most of the fighters on the undercard - who were Russian - were mobilized for the war in Ukraine.

If nothing else, Jarrell Miller will be racking up an impressive tally of Frequent Flyer miles this fall.

 

Washington is no superstar, but there is something that I like about him. Of all the cans Wilder crushed, he is the one that stood tall, ended on his feet, and made an effort if it. Well, him and Duhaupas.

 

Noticed WBA already ranked him again, what a shame. That cheating fat man should never be allowed in the ring again.

 

Love or hate him... Miller is staying active which is something most heavies just don't do anymore.

 

Who would love him? The man had 25 forbidden drugs in his body, could have killed someone. Active or not, he should never be allowed in the ring again.

 

I'm not saying anyone does or should. I'm just saying the path he's taking by staying active works in the division and more should do it.

 

I will agree with both that miller is a walking Tijuana pharmacy and that heavyweights (and other weight classes) should stay very active.

 

Gerald was pretty much out on his feet when Wilder caught up to him. I don't think he has much of a chin, but he has more heart than people have been giving him credit for.

When he fought Demirejen - he finally looked like a boxer who knew what he was doing. Unfortunately, he tired after just a couple of rounds. He's 40 years-old now - so his technical & tactical improvement won't do him much good.

 

I'm on the fence here. It definitely isn't good for a HW to be inactive for very long - but Miller isn't a novice or even a prospect at this stage and some of these opponents are pretty scruffy. Improving his overall fitness seems to be of greater importance than just padding his record. And Miller already has a ranking - which means the right people think there's money to be made with him - and he doesn't have to bowl over a bunch of cans to get noticed.

 

I think the punishment they gave him has fit the crime(s so far committed). In retrospect, Miller just isn't that heavy of a hitter even with the PEDs (which likely increased his endurance more so than anything else). His later stoppage victories aren't all that impressive: Wach hurt his hand, Dinu has not heart whatsoever, and Adamek was an old man whose punch resistance had long since left him. And he never looked like putting away Duhapuas.

He lost 2 1/2 years due to his own stupidity and duplicity and that has to hurt. Enough to prevent him from repeating his crimes? We'll see and they should keep him under a microscope.

 

Deontae Pettigrew (8-0-0) scored a UD win over Woods (28-55-9) in their 6 round fight on October 15th.

Pettigrew is already 33, so he will need to be moved along quickly. Unfortunately, he's entering a kind of "dead zone" that exists in USA boxing - i.e. he will probably start to struggle to get step-up opponents. I believe he's promoted by Hitz Boxing - and they are somewhat limited to midwest USA cards.

 

Miller vs Gurgen Hovhannisyan. That'd be intriguing.

 

James McKenzie Morrisson (20-0-2, 18 KOs) will be back in action on October 22nd against Robert Simms (11-3-1, 3 KOs) in a 10 round fight for the WBC USNBC Heavyweight Title on October 22nd.

The 32 year-old Morrisson recently began to make a name for himself by stopping fellow 2nd generation boxer Hasim Rahman Jr during their fight last April.

The 38 year-old Simms isn't as well known - but he's proven to be a bit of a spoiler. He's a counterpuncher-type fighter who is pretty good at managing the distance to his opponent. That's a kind way of saying he grabs him and ties him up. He was pretty effective in neutralizing George Arias Jr's infighting game when the two fought in 2019 (a fight which Arias did win) and he seemed well on his way to exposing undefeated prospect Moses Johnson when the two fought last March. Unfortunately, that fight ended by TD when Johnson accidentally (or otherwise) landed a shot to the back of Simms' head. Simms also had a relatively easy UD win over Joe Cusumano.

Simms' greatest weaknesses beyond his lack of power are: a) his short 5' 11" frame b) The excessive amount of weight (often 255-265) that he carries on it. He said in an interview last week that he expects to be 235 lbs for this fight. If so, he has a chance to outbox Morrisson.

Speaking of Moses Johnson...

6' 3", 30 year-old Moses Johnson (8-0-1) will be fighting 32 year-old, 6' 2" Elvis Garcia (12-0-0) in an 8 round fight on a Salita Promotions card on October 21st. Johnson was most recently in action against Robert Simms (see above) - where he appeared sluggish and was definitely carrying more weight than he should have been. Garcia - who had recently lost considerabl weight - had been slated to fight Alante Green last June - but apparently failed a PED test leading to his substitution with George Arias Jr.

Tough to make a prediction for this one. Johnson had a nice-looking, dominant UD win over Ed Fountain in June, 2021 but he was not at all impressive against Simms.

 

Speaking of Elvis Garcia...(I seem to be in "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" mode tonight)

Garcia stopped a Brooklyn, NY fighter named Joel Shojgreen back in August, 2021.

Well Shojgreen fought Lyubomyr Pinchuk in a cruiserweight content on October 1 - and he stopped Pinchuk in the 1st round. Pinchuk - though pretty limited - is known to have an excellent chin. Apparently, Shojgreen landed a bomb near the end of the 1st round that floored Pinchuk and hurt him badly. Pinchuk just beat the count but had hurt his knee and could barely stand. So when Shojgreen went in for the kill, the ref. quickly waved it off. Not bad for a 40 year-old fighter who was spotting some 14 years to his younger opponent - who is no feather-fist, himself.

Shojgreen moves to 14-3-0 with 13 KOs.