During yesterday’s kick off press conference in New York, Jarrell Miller breaks down his thoughts on Anthony Joshua’s resume, and explains why he thinks he’s more than earned his shot at this title opportunity...
“[Joshua] does certain things well. He gets hit pretty well too. He has an okay jab. Right hand is pretty decent, left hook is decent. But if you watch and you study AJ, he only hurts his opponent when they’re tired. And a lot of his fights aren’t knockouts, they’re stoppages. And a lot of them were early stoppages by the referee he had in England.
“So when you start putting all these numbers in context and start doing your research, and I study everyday — I know what they boy ate for breakfast two days in a row...people say they might not watch footage and study guys but I do. ‘Cause I’m bored. I’m a fighter, I’m obsessed with this shit.
“So I sit there all day and I watch his social media, I watch his trainer’s social media, I watch his best friend’s social media, I watch his mom’s social media, you know, I watch his dad’s social media. I even watch his sister’s social media. People say ‘you’re a little nuts.’ But in order to get to your goals you gotta be a little nuts, you gotta be a little psycho...
“The way how I got here is so unconventional, you know, it was so crazy. It was straight out of a fantasy book. Not ‘fantasy’ per se, it’s out of a book where the author is constantly changing the direction of where the story gonna go...but it wasn’t only ‘cause of me, per se, it’s because a few people that were around me invested in me because they believed in me. They saw something genuine in me that ‘hey listen, I wanna help this kid out.’
“They say it takes a village to raise a child, and it took a village to help me get to where I’m at today...I ain’t get no easy fights like AJ. AJ got a shitload of easy fights coming up the rankings, guys that were 7-14, and 9-20 something...look at his early record fights — trash.
“If you look at any other heavyweight that has a record before they fought for a championship — I got the best record, period. ‘Cause who did AJ fight when he fought for a title?...He got smacked up by Dillian Whyte, end up stopping Dillian Whyte, and he said he wasn’t gonna fight no American. He’s a walking contradiction, him and his promoter.
“‘I’m not gonna fight no American, but Charles Martin fighting a bum, wins on a technicality, ‘oh we’ll fight Charles Martin and throw $7M at him real quick, hopefully we can get him to come over to London.’ What Charles Martin do? Choke...Who he fought? Nobody!
“...and he fights Vladimir Klitschko who’s two years removed from the game, little ring rust, and lost his last fight to Tyson Fury...Deontay Wilder — who Deontay Wilder fight in 30-something fights before he fought Stiverne? Nobody! Name one person Deontay fought before he fought for a world title?...
“So look who I fought before I’m getting a title shot. But yet some people say I ain’t earn my shot yet. But you know what I say to them, right? Kiss my ass.”