Jared Anderson will become the top American heavyweight, overtaking Deontay Wilder with another victory on Saturday night.
Anderson battles Ryad Merhy on Saturday night to cement his place as the next US top division champion. Wilder has held that mantel for over nine years since defeating Bermane Stiverne to win the WBC heavyweight title. Wilder’s recent inactivity and defeat to Joseph Parker put the pair closer in the rankings than ever before.
Rather than being a massive Wilder face from grace, it’s merely a situation where elevators are going in the opposite direction. Anderson has slowly moved up with each of his sixteen victories. Meanwhile, Wilder has fought four times in four years and lost three of those bouts.
A changing of the guard is imminent as “The Real Big Baby” pushes closer to a heavyweight championship chance against the winner of Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk. Promoter Bob Arum believes 2026 could be Anderson’s year, and with no guarantee Fury will be around by then, Usyk would be the realistic target.
However, after Anderson’s recent brush with the law, Arum was keen to point out that his top heavyweight was not a monster.
“He’s a young kid, a good-looking kid, and what he did was wrong, racing cars and so forth. A lot of these kids do that,” Arum told BoxNation on YouTube. “But it wasn’t as though he was beating people up in a bar or stealing things. He was behaving the way some 23 or 24-year-old kids do – doing stupid things. So now, thank God he’s lost his driver’s license, so he can’t get in a car.
“He’s a really nice kid, a really fun kid with a big smile – he has a big test against this Belgian fighter that has a great resume, Merhy. I believe that given the rest of the year and next year, by 2026, Jared will be fighting for the heavyweight championship of the world and be the next great heavyweight.”
The fact that Anderson and Fury have become close through many training sessions could be another reason the fight may never happen. Fury’s close ties to Arum would almost certainly keep them apart, even if Fury held all the belts.
Arum will likely wait until Fury is out of the picture before putting Anderson forward for what seems to be his right of passage.
A big knockout against former cruiserweight Merhy this weekend will be enough to place Anderson above Wilder as the top American heavyweight in the country.
The views expressed in this article are the opinions of Phil Jay. Learn more and read all articles from the experienced boxing writer.
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