Getting to Know Jared Anderson, Boxing’s ‘Next Big Thing’

Getting to Know Jared Anderson, Boxing’s ‘Next Big Thing’

A boxing gym is supposed to be something of a sweat box and that was certainly true last Thursday afternoon, July 8, at Bones Adams gym in Las Vegas. Inside the gym, it was somewhat cooler than outdoors where the temperature hit 114 degrees, but the operative word here is “somewhat.”

The gym was much busier than usual, amping up the swelter. Heavyweight contender Michael Hunter was here going through his paces and recording promos for his Aug. 3 match at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden against former amateur rival Mike Wilson. Laila McCarter, who seemingly never takes a day off, was here sparring with former world title challenger Sharif Bogere. But the boxer attracting the most eyeballs was Jared Anderson who did six rounds of hard sparring with Patrick Mailata, a burly Samoan who wasn’t intimidated by the buzz heralding Anderson as the “next big thing.”

At one point, their feet got tangled, they fell to the mat in a heap, and for a fleeting moment it appeared as if a real fight would break out. But the moment passed without further incident and at the conclusion of the session, they hugged and exchanged kind words.

If one were to meet Jared Anderson for the first time and learn that he was an athlete, one would guess football. The “Real Big Baby” carries about 245 pounds on a six-foot-four frame and it’s easy to envision him as a tight end or defensive end for his home state Ohio State Buckeyes. But Jared joined the PAL boxing program at Toledo’s Central City Gym at the age of eight and never looked back. He did try out for football once – the coach didn’t like his attitude and told him he needn’t bother coming back – but, by and large, sports other than boxing held no allure. He likes going places that he hasn’t been before and top-shelf amateur boxers get to see parts of the world that other kids from their neighborhood will never get to see. (He fondly recalls a visit to Holland: “We were treated like kings.”)

Anderson rose to prominence within the small world of U.S. amateur boxing in 2017 when he finished first in his weight class at the USA National Tournament and was named the tournament’s Outstanding Boxer. He was eighteen years old, just barely, and it was a major upset when he outpointed flamboyant Cam X. Awesome, an 11-year veteran of elite amateur boxing, in the finals.

After winning another USA national title in 2018, Anderson was well-positioned to represent his nation in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but he didn’t wait around for the grand international event that would be stalled by the pandemic. On Sept. 24, 2019, he signed with Top Rank. Two other Toledo boxers, lightweight Albert Bell and junior lightweight Tyler McCreary, were already in the Top Rank fold.

Anderson made his pro debut on Oct. 26, 2019. As of this writing he’s 9-0 with all of his wins coming by knockout. In most of these fights – in stark contrast to his sparring session with Patrick Mailata – he hardly broke a sweat. As a pro, he’s answered the bell for only 20 rounds.

Jared was Tyson Fury’s lead sparring partner heading into Fury’s rematch with Deontay Wilder. He guesses that he has sparred about 60 rounds with the Gypsy King. “With Fury,” he says “what you see is what you get. He is a very open person.” Indeed, the gregarious and mischievous Britisher has a way of keeping things loose in the gym while still keeping his nose to the grindstone.

The linchpin of Team Jared Anderson is Central City head boxing coach Darrie Riley who has been with Jared since the very beginning. But nowadays, Anderson hangs his hat mostly in Houston to be closer to assistant coach Kay Koroma who turned heads working with Anderson and his Team USA teammates at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

Anderson’s father is a jack-of-all-trades — plumbing, roofing, electrical work, etc – who owns his own handyman’s business. His mother is a social worker. He has two older brothers on his mother’s side.

Hailing from Toledo, one would guess that Jared is a fan of the Cleveland Browns, or maybe the team across the bay, the Lions. (Toledo is closer to Detroit than to Cleveland as the crow flies.) But no, he is a longstanding New England Patriots fan.

He adopted the Pats while playing the Madden 09 video game with his friends and older brothers. A trace of a fiendish smile crosses his lips when he thinks about how he daggered them whenever he had the Tom Brady-to-Randy Moss combination working for him.

Asked to name his most admired boxers, Anderson crosses generations: Sugar Ray Leonard; Andre Ward; Shakur Stevenson.

One might think that Jared selected Shakur merely as a way of giving a “shout out” to one of his best buddies, but no. “I don’t believe that any boxer his age was ever as skilled defensively, not even Floyd Mayweather,” he says. “In his amateur days, he was impossible to hit.”

Being the world’s greatest defensive fighter can actually be poison as far as developing a big fan base. In his last bout against Namibia’s Jeremiah Nakathila, Stephenson won all 12 rounds on every scorecard, official and unofficial, a virtuoso performance, but most viewers likely had trouble staying awake.

“I’m afraid he may have to take on the role of a villain (to maximize his career earnings),” says Anderson.

What about Jared? Might he also adopt the persona of a villain?

“That’s not my nature,” he says, “I love supportive fans. But some days I feel like being a villain. Today I feel like being a villain.”

What soured Anderson on the human race on this particular day was the discovery that someone had hacked into his Twitter and Instagram accounts for the purpose of selling stuff. He was also disturbed by a recent allegation on social media that he had blown off a little kid who just wanted an autograph.

“I would never intentionally do that,” he says, while noting that sometimes when he is leaving an arena, he is pushed forward by a gaggle of attendants in a way that makes it hard to notice folks standing off to the side.

“I signed for a guy the other day,” says Anderson, “and when he left, I thought to myself I think this is maybe the fifth time that I’ve signed for this guy.”

Autograph hounds are annoying in a way that only a famous person can truly appreciate. And the ranks of these fleas (those that cadge autographs to re-sell) have grown exponentially in the digital age where anyone can become a memorabilia dealer.

We regret to inform Mr. Anderson that things will almost assuredly get worse. He will be besieged by more and more autograph hounds as his career continues on its upward slope. Of course, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It will mean that the “next big thing” in boxing is proving to be as good as advertised.

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