February 14 On ESPN: Jared Anderson takes on Marios Kollias

Heavyweight Jared Anderson (17-1, 15 KOs) needs an impressive performance next month against Marios Kollias (12-3-1, 10 KOs) on Friday, February 14 at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. This is a fight designed to restore Anderon’s confidence after what happened to him in his last fight on August 3rd.

The prisoner’s nightmare

Top Rank-promoted ‘Big Baby’ Anderson, 25, was destroyed Martin Bakole in five rounds last August, and he looked awful in that fight. Jared was completely outclassed from the jump, and fell in the first round. The fight would have ended in the first round if the knockdown had come earlier because Anderson looked gone after getting to his feet.

Bakole was too powerful for Anderson. In the fifth, he dropped Anderson twice more to get the knockout. He wasn’t even sporty. Promoter Bob Arum hasn’t given up on Jared, but you have to believe he’s going to give up on him soon if he keeps acting like this.

If you’re Arum, you have to consider throwing Anderson overboard if he looks bad against the little-known Kollias. This is a confidence-building type of fight for Jared, but if he looked terrible here, Arum needs to get rid of him. He’s still young enough to improve, but his resistance to punches, lack of power, and shy way of fighting make it unlikely that he can be improved.

Anderson looks good when he’s throwing combinations and attacking weak holds, but he looked terrible against Bakole. The guys at the top of the heavyweight division are getting pretty old.

So there’s a chance that Jared could capture one of the belts once the old men retire, but not if he’s up against someone with power, like Bakole or even Zhilei Zhang. He’s 41, but still too dangerous for Anderson. If Arum can protect Jared long enough, he might be able to capture a belt at some point. I should keep him away from anyone with power because he will be destroyed like he did against Bakole.

This wasn’t the first time Anderson looked skinny. He had been injured in his fights against Jerry Forrest and Charles Martin. Those fights showed that Jared’s ability to hang with lower level fighters isn’t there yet. It’s too fragile. That’s what I would do.

Arum still believes in Jared

Anderson-Kollias will fight a 10-rounder on the Denys Berinchyk vs. Keyshawn Davis bill on ESPN and ESPN+.

“I still think Jared Anderson is one of the most formidable heavyweights in the world, and I expect him to come back with a vengeance this year,” Arum said.

Keyshawn Davis is another of Arum’s projects that he is trying to make a star. However, he will have to be protected just like Jared. He has already struggled in his fights against Nahir Albright and Miguel Madueno.

Keyshawn looked like a WWE wrestler against Madueno, and the referee didn’t disqualify him for all the brutal tactics he used in that fight. Davis seemed desperate to win and emptied the lockers for any tricks he could to keep Madueno from knocking him out.

Andy Cruz worked with Keyshawn at the 2020 Olympics, easily beating him in a one-sided gold medal fight in the finals. It was surprising that Arum chose to sign Keyshawn after that loss instead of Cruz. I guess he figures he can build it up with his ability to talk it out rather than fight it.