There was nothing about his last performance that came of any surprise to Jared Anderson.
Especially the aftermath.
The unbeaten, fast-rising heavyweight contender went all ten rounds for the first time in his young career in an entertaining but clear unanimous decision win over former titlist Charles Martin on July 1 in his hometown of Toledo, Ohio. Anderson scored a third-round knockdown and appeared on his way to extend his perfect knockout-to-win streak but was instead to go the distance—and past the sixth round—for the first time in his career.
A brief moment of adversity was also dealt to the 23-year-old heavyweight, when a long left hand by Martin caught his attention in round five and again in the closing seconds of the tenth and final round.
“Everything that happened, I was confident of handling,” Anderson told BoxingScene.com. “I just didn’t know what fight it was going to come out in. Nothing in that fight happened that I wasn’t already confident in what I could do.
“For it to have been on ESPN where everybody else could see it, how they took it was actually a downer. It didn’t do nothing but feed my ego.”
Anderson (15-0, 14KOs) left the fight with his perfect record still intact and relatively unscathed to where he can enjoy a quick turnaround. The top-rated contender is right back at this Saturday as he faces Ukraine’s Andrii Rudenko (35-6, 21KOs) atop an all-heavyweight, ESPN-televised tripleheader from Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The fight is already the third in a span of less than four months for Anderson, and his fifth ring appearance in exactly 52 weeks. It’s his first, however, where he doesn’t get the enter on the heels of an explosive knockout—and perhaps the first time where he has to respond to any lingering critics from his last performance.
That’s a challenge he was always ready to accept.
“Now I know that everyone’s doubting me,” noted Anderson. “So when I do go into that next fight where they think that it’s gonna be a problem or issue, I’m gonna tell everybody ‘Make sure you go bet your biggest bag, and then make sure to share it with me when I win because I told y’all.’
“I feel like just kind of fed into my ego and they’re gonna hype up a different side of me.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox