Jarrell “Big Baby’ Miller (15-01, 13 KOs) will make his second consecutive appearance on Showtime’s ShoBox: The New Generation series when he takes on Donovan Dennis (12-2, 10 KOs) this Friday night at the Casino del Sol in Tucson, Arizona for the vacant WBA North American title.
Miller opened eyes back in October when he demolished Akhor Muralimov in three rounds in his first ShoBox appearance and understands the magnitude of this bout.
“This is big fight for me,” Miller said by phone from Tucson. “There is no room for error for me. I must demolish him the way I did in my last fight. Each fight gets me closer to my goal.”
Miller, who is originally from Brooklyn but now trains out of Rochester, NY, began the week with the news that the WBA now ranks him as the No. 15 heavyweight in the world. Miller is an alumni of the popular Brooklyn Brawl series which is promoted by Dmitriy Salita, who also co-promotes Miller with Greg Cohen.
“It feels great to be No. 15 but I can’t let it get to me,” said Miller. “I’m not No. 1 yet so that is what is important for me.”
The heavyweight division saw another jolt this past weekend with the big one-punch knockout by WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder of Artur Szpilka which left the Polish fighter leaving the building in a stretcher. The evening further went into the absurd when WBO/WBA heavyweight champion Tyson Fury jumped into ring WWE style and challenged Wilder.
“All these guys are just punks,” Miller said emphatically. “They keep feeding stiffs to fight Wilder so who is he really? And Tyson Fury is a clown. These guys think this is a game. It’s not a game to me. I’m less than a year away from murdering and massacring these guys.”
Miller’s promoter Salita is not surprised how quickly the young heavyweight has progressed in such a short time.
“I really think Jarrell is the best heavyweight prospect in the world,” Salita said. “When I initially signed him a lot of top promoters passed on him but I was telling everyone that he has it all. My job is to help him continue his growth.”
This will mark Miller’s first scheduled 10-round bout and will be his toughest test to date. Dennis is a 6’4’’ southpaw who was recently featured on ESPN’s Boxcino tournament where he was stopped by Andrey Fedosov in the finals.
Salita believes Miller will have a meaningful bout in the second half of 2016 if he does his job on Friday.
“Our plan is to keep Jarrell busy this year and the good news is he gets better with each fight. He used to go to camp with me when he was 16 so I am extremely proud of how far he has progressed.”
Photo by Esther Lin
