Renowned coach Teddy Atlas expressed his thoughts on rising heavyweight star Jared Anderson, who is seen as the "future ruler" of his division. There is no denying that Anderson's influence has skyrocketed in recent years, with a 100% knockout rate at one point, and even WBC champion Tyson Fury has praised him, believing that Anderson has a "not too distant future".
However, in a confrontation with former IBF champion Charles Martin, Anderson appeared to show his stuffing and suffered the toughest test of his career. Martin fought Anthony Joshua in 2016 and only lasted 2 rounds, and fans wanted to see Anderson face Martin, who was already past his prime, and would end the fight in a few rounds, but his performance was hardly satisfactory.
Anderson was told to play Martin with 11 days left before the start of the fight, and his previous opponent was unable to travel to the United States due to visa problems, so he withdrew from the confrontation, which may have been a major factor in Anderson's poor performance, but in Atlas's view, Anderson was overrated, overhyped, and bluntly said that the other party was not a great fighter at all.
Atlas said: "They overhyped Anderson and thought he was the next great heavyweight, how bad that is! Remember, Martin was the one Joshua easily defeated, he wasn't great, and Anderson isn't great either. When you overhype Anderson, you lose all credibility and people won't believe you next time. ”
Before the match, many people predicted that Anderson would knock out Martin, after all, the other party is 37 years old, and it is more appropriate to describe it as "old dragon bell", but it is such a fighter, but it makes Anderson a little embarrassed, although he knocked Martin once, but he couldn't stop the opponent, and was hit hard many times, especially Anderson's strength, compared with Joshua and "King Kong" Louis Ortiz, it seems that it is not as magical as the outside world brags, so that Martin can accept all the heavy punches in the face of Anderson.
Anderson has his own explanation for failing to stop Martin, claiming that he didn't want to end the fight by knocking him down.
Anderson said: "I wanted to run this distance, for the first time, especially to be able to withstand a full 10 rounds of strength until the last round, Martin still has a heavy punch, I am happy to fight until the end. I finished my best shot and didn't think I looked very consistent or uncontrollable for a while in the game. Was Martin's attack good and shocked me? No! I think he gave me a good chance to be aware of certain issues. Yes, I had to recalibrate and get back into the plan. ”
Personally, I think that in the confrontation between Anderson and Martin, although the overall performance is not satisfactory, it is not too out of line, after all, Martin is a temporary replacement, and Anderson will be different in psychology and tactical formulation. In this battle, Anderson still showed his skills, and the rhythm control ability is also good, but in the face of left-handed boxers' attacks, his right defense still has loopholes, in the past this aspect of shortcomings are more covered by ferocious attacks, Anderson must improve related problems in the future, as for whether a huge breakthrough can be made in the future, I believe time will verify everything.