Jared Anderson vs Andriy Rudenko planned for August 26th

Jared “Big Baby” Anderson is apparently eager to get back in action after his toughest test to date, as Mike Coppinger reports that he’ll face Andriy Rudenko on August 26th.

The fight airs on ESPN after Oleksandr Usyk vs Daniel Dubois on ESPN+.

This is, to put it charitably, a massive step down in class. Rudenko (35-6, 21 KO) is 39 years old and sports losses to Lucas Browne, Hughie Fury, Alexander Povetkin, Agit Kabayel, Zhilei Zhang, and Vladyslav Sirenko. You can’t even argue that he’s guaranteed to take Anderson (15-0, 14 KO) the distance, as Sirenko stopped him in six in 2021 where the rest had to see the judges.

I can’t knock Anderson for staying active or demand that he go after someone like Zhan Kossobutskiy when the Martin fight showed him how much he needs to fix. I do, however, feel like Rudenko is pushing the limits of acceptability.