Moses Itauma needs to fight Jarrell "Big Baby" Miller

I live heavyweight boxing, and when I tell you Jarrell "Big Baby" Miller is the perfect comeback fight for Itauma, I am not exaggerating. First, we need to examine what Hrgovic did to win and why Miller provides the same or similar challenges. Hrgovic used his chin to outlast Itauma, pressed Itauma when he was tired, brutally trash-talked Itauma to get in his head, and used his big-bear stamina to his advantage. Does that sound familiar to our favorite heavyweight giant?

Miller probably has the 3rd-best chin in the division behind Hrgovic and Wardley. When Miller was crazy out of shape against Dubois, he took Dubois' best shots for 10 rounds before getting stopped standing. Miller brings insane pressure and uses his weight to put opponents on the ropes. Miller threw 1,000 punches in his last fight. They were mostly tapping punches, but they were still hurtful blows, which leads to my next point: his gas tank is insane, not just for his size, but in general for a heavyweight. Also, and maybe most famously of all, the dude can trash-talk. He knows how to get under his opponents' skin. Maybe besides Dubois, but Dubois is a man you can't get in the head of unless you call him a binman for some reason lol. All of this combined makes Miller the perfect comeback opponent for Moses and gives Moses the opportunity to work on his biggest issues as a boxer: his pacing and stamina.

If Moses or his team doesn't want to have a super-hard comeback fight, here are some good matchups he could take before the Miller fight so he can gain some rounds:

Ryad Merhy
Tony Yoka
Labinot Xhoxhaj
Hughie Fury
Mourad Aliev
Arslan Yallyev

 

Yes, I agree it may be too early, but if he KO's Miller late in a 12-round fight, I think it would do wonders for his confidence. And I do believe, after the fight I watched, that if he paces himself, he could win a competitive decision against this very good version of Miller.

But all things considered, the names I listed would be pretty good comeback opponents. The best, just due to their styles, would probably be Aliev and Merhy, who could give Itauma rounds even though neither is great.

 

But he eventually needs to address the stamina and pacing issues if he wants to become the great champion we were told he would be.

 

I don't think so. He could break him down to the body and, in similar fashion to the Hrgovic fight, break down his stamina, but he hasn't iced anyone recently.

Yes, most likely.

 

Yes, I do think this fight is too hard as a comeback fight. I changed my mind. But if Itauma wants a world title shot, he should fight Miller.