By Vince D’Writer: Heavyweight boxer Jared Anderson made his return to the ring as the co-feature of the Jose Pedraza-Richard Commey card on Saturday night at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He experienced an eighth month layoff from the ring due to a hand injury, but he had no issues with his hand on Saturday night as he scored an impressive second-round knockout victory over Miljan Rovcanin.
Anderson came out in the first round and he gave Rovcanin different looks as he started the round off as a southpaw, but midway through the round he switched to the orthodox stance. For a brief moment the bout had the feel of a back and forth match until Anderson was able to take control. The 22-year-old heavyweight prospect had a very efficient offensive attack as he used a stiff consistent jab, and effective shots to the body.
As the bell sounded to start round two, Anderson used the same formula to control the round by landing the jab, and sustaining a potent body attack. Things went from bad to worse for Rovcanin when Anderson became more aggressive by applying pressure and breaking his opponent down with accurate power shots. It appeared as though Rovcanin would be fortunate enough to get out of round two until Anderson landed a hard right hand with seconds left to go in the round.
Miljan Rovcanin (24-3, 16 KOs) couldn’t recover from the buzzer beater styled knockdown as he laid on his back and helplessly watched the referee count him out. With the knockout victory, Jared Anderson keeps his 100% knockout ratio in tact as he improves his record to (12-0, 12 KOs). During his post-fight interview, Anderson expressed his desire to take a step up in competition and face a top contender in the heavyweight division.
Jared Anderson mentioned his future goal, and he also provided the name of the heavyweight contender he would like to square off against. Anderson named Filip Hrgovic (15-0, 12 KOs) as the opponent he wants to step in the ring with. Recently Hrgovic was awarded what some would label a controversial victory against Zhilei Zhang (24-1-1, 19 KOs).
Zhang dropped Hrgovic with a right hook in the opening round of their fight. For the majority of the first half of the bout, Zhang was in attack mode and Hrgovic was fighting off his back foot. Zhang was outworking Hrgovic and he was landing the cleaner shots until he started showing signs of fatigue at the midway point of the bout.
Hrgovic was able to take advantage of Zhang’s stamina issues by landing hard power shots to the head and body. Both men dug down deep to finish strong at the end, but Hrgovic was the man who escaped with the victory. Zhang appeared to do enough to get the win, or at the very least a draw, but unfortunately for Zhang the judges didn’t see it that way.
The Toledo, Ohio native Jared Anderson views Filip Hrgovic as a perfect step-up opponent, but Hrgovic and his team may not be interested in a matchup against Anderson. As of now Hrgovic is the IBF mandatory, and if he stepped into the ring with Anderson he would have everything to lose and basically nothing to gain. Anderson needs to tighten up his defense, but from an offensive standpoint Anderson is a dangerous opponent for Hrgovic.
A potential bout with Filip Hrgovic would reveal Jared Anderson being high risk opposition due to his punching power and athleticism. On the flip side Hrgovic would be the most dangerous opponent Anderson ever faced, but as he stated in his post-fight interview he’s willing to step up to the challenge.
“I called him out. I would really love that fight. Being realistic, we don’t know how far we are from that fight, but I would love that fight, Filip Hrgovic, anybody in the top-10 in the IBF, WBO, WBC. We just looking for some bigger names. You know everybody keep asking for bigger fights, and we would love to have those bigger fights.”
