If you thought that Jared Anderson was a heavyweight version of Adrien Broner then I could understand why you would think that. The 12-0 (12 KO’s) possesses an impressive 6’4 stature as well as a 78 and a half reach. But there is a reason why the hype is building up around him right now. Armed with a heavy right hand, fast hands and able to switch back and forth between orthodox and southpaw with ease, Jared Anderson is looking promising. He is yet to crack the top 10 in any of the major organisations, although the WBC rank him at number 23 as of August, 2022. But at only 22 years of age, there is no rush right now. He seems to be coming along nicely and is making steady progress.
But just how far will he go?
That is always a hard question to answer. Especially during such an early time when a fighter has just about started their career. However, we can examine their weaknesses and flaws that may give us some hints. Anderson likes to keep his opponents occupied with a flickering jab while looking for an opening to land the right hook to the head. Pressure is his game, so he is always going forward and stalking his opponents. He hardly takes a backward step. But Jared does tend to lean forward too much to land a punch every now and again, leaving his chin exposed. The compulsion to step things up a notch too early can be hard for him to resist which has evidently seen him being caught with counter punches as he goes in at close range. There are also times when he walks forward with his guard a tad low. Against a heavy puncher that could spell trouble.
There is plenty of time to work on those issues, so there is no real need to worry at this time. But if and when he begins to start facing contenders in the top 10 then he may start to see some urgency. The positive thing is that the heavyweight division right now lacks many solid contenders although there are some great champions including Tyson Fury and even regular WBA title holder Daniel Dubois. Joe Joyce is also pretty solid and has earned enough experience when he fought in the World Series of Boxing before turning professional by fighting the likes of Oleksandr Usyk.
There is no real way to tell how far Anderson will go right now, but if he has not worked to resolve his flaws by the time he begins fighting serious opposition then we will have a lot more to go on in terms of gauging his progress. Let’s not forget that he also does a lot of things right and will likely have what it takes to give us some interesting fights in the higher ranks. With his obnoxious ring walks, he has an opportunity to enhance his marketing image in the future in order to form an interesting narrative in order to become a household name and perhaps a big Pay Per View attraction. But that is a long way off yet.
Right now all Jared Anderson can, and should just do, is continue to knock them over as they keep coming.
