By Michael Kinney
TULSA-Jared ‘The Real Big Baby” Anderson began his career with 14 straight knockout victories. In his short career, the Toledo native’s hands have gained a reputation as lethal.
However, that knockout streak came to an end in July with Anderson’s unanimous decision win over Charles Martin at the Huntington Center. Even though he remained undefeated, questions may have begun to arise that maybe his hands were not as dangerous as people had been led to believe.
Anderson put those questions, if they existed, to rest Aug. 26th. Just two months after his last bout, he put Ukraine’s Andriy Rudenko out of his misery with a fifth-round TKO at the Hard Rock Casino in Tulsa. He retains his WBO International and WBC USA heavyweight title belts.
“I was trying to be myself,” Anderson said. “That was what I was trying to do specifically stay true to myself as fighting wise and personality-wise.”
However, at the same time, with the victory Anderson was sending a message to his detractors.
“I was sending a statement to myself. I’m fighting for myself, and I’m fighting for my family. As much as people want to hate on me for it, I’m a realist. I’m going to stay real and be real,” Anderson said. “And I’m going to say what’s on my mind. Ya’ll can take it how ya’ll want. This is a business. This is a sport. I’m just doing my job. Take it how you want. You can’t force me to be somebody ya’ll want me to be. I’m going to be myself. And I’m going to be that till the end.”
Anderson improved to 16-0 with 15 KOs. Five of those have been by TKO. Rudenko dropped to 35-7.
Despite Rudenko’s impressive career numbers, Anderson was not impressed by what he saw from him throughout the night.
“No, he did not (offer a challenge),” Anderson said. “A hard ass head. That’s about it.”
Anderson came to the ring dressed in full Batman garb. That included a black mask, black cape, winged shoe and baby blue gloves with the Batman logo emblazoned on them. All while the theme song from the 1960s Batman TV show played over the loudspeaker.
Despite the theatrics, the 39-year-old Rudenko came into the bout not afraid to exchange punches with Anderson.
But while Rudenko was able to land his jab successfully in the opening rounds, Anderson continually delivered power blows to the body. That included a flurry to both sides that seemed to stagger the brawny Rudenko to close out the third.
At the start of the fifth, it was apparent that Anderson’s work through the first four rounds had done its job. Rudenko wasn’t as aggressive and after he had a point taken away for holding, all the steam seemed to leave his body.
Anderson saw weakness and attacked. He cornered Rudenko on the ropes and wouldn’t let him escape. He then unleashed a barrage of punches to the body and head.
At the 1:40 mark in the fifth, referee Gary Ritter stopped the fight with Anderson being declared the winner.
Anderson landed 51 percent of his total punches. That includes 55 percent of his power punches.
Anderson also connected on 72 body punches, which established a new career high in less than five full rounds of work. According to CompuBox, 58 percent of Anderson’s power punches were body punches.
“I feel like that’s for every fight we got,” Anderson said of his body work. “A lot of heavyweights don’t go downstairs to the body and that’s where I’m always going to go. It’s part of the plan to start with the body and the head will fall. And as you saw, it worked.”
Anderson was joined by his manager Bob Arum after the fight, who had nothing but high praise for his featured fighter.
“Nobody looked as good as the guy on my left there. He was something really special. He fought a really tough guy,” Arum said. “This guy, you can hit him over the head with a hammer, right? For sure. So he did extraordinarily well. And Jared is, forget about all these foreigners. They’re great fighters, but we have an American here that’s going to be the top guy in the heavyweight division.”
According to Arum, Anderson will have at least one more fight this year, which would be his fourth in 2023.
“I’m healthy as you can see. I’m not blemished in my face or hands,” Anderson said. “So as long as we can stay healthy, we’re going to keep working.”
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