Jarrell Miller Convinced He Was ‘Robbed’ In Draw With Andy Ruiz
Heavyweight contender Jarrell Miller believes he was “robbed” in his draw against Andy Ruiz last Saturday and is convinced he did more than enough to win.
In a clash that failed to live up to the pre-fight excitement, Miller (26-1-2 22 KO) and Ruiz (35-2-1 22 KO) fought to a majority draw in Los Angeles, with one judge awarding the bout to Miller 116-112 and the other two scoring it 114-114. Their fight was part of the stacked Riyadh Season show at BMO Stadium, headlined by Terence Crawford’s victory over WBA super-welterweight champion Israil Madrimov.
Not only Miller but many inside the arena felt the New Yorker should have won – despite Ruiz fighting in his home state – and made their feelings heard after the scores were announced.
The stats suggest Miller has the right to feel aggrieved; he both outpunched and outlanded Ruiz over the course of the 12 rounds, finding the target with 183 of 514 punches compared to Ruiz’s 113 from 355, according to Compubox. As for round-by-round punch stats, Miller outlanded his opponents in all but the first three rounds.
“I know I did enough,” Miller said. “I threw more punches; it’s called effective aggression.”
‘Big Baby’ shared his frustration about the three judges and is convinced fighting in Ruiz’s home state worked against him on the scores. One of the judges Lou Moret, is from California, while Robert Hoyle is based in neighboring Nevada. The third judge, David Sutherland, is based in Oklahoma.
“We need different judges, not so close to California. We had a California judge, a Nevada judge; we knew we were coming into his hometown — one judge scored it for me and two called it a draw,” Miller said, although it was the judge from Nevada, Hoyle, who scored the fight in his favor.
“That’s boxing; sometimes you get robbed,” Miller added. “I just want the fans to keep supporting me; I’ve been an underdog my whole life.”
Miller shot to prominence in 2019 when he landed the biggest fight in the heavyweight division against Anthony Joshua for the unified world champion’s American debut at Madison Square Garden in New York.
However, he failed a pre-fight drug test and was handed a suspension. Ruiz stepped in as Miller’s replacement and secured one of the greatest shocks in heavyweight history by stopping Joshua in the seventh round to win the WBA, WBO, and IBF belts.
After serving his suspension, Miller was due to make his return in July 2020 against Jerry Forrest, but failed another drug test and was banned for a second time in less than two years.
Still, the New Yorker has managed to use his notoriety to his advantage to land big and lucrative bouts; he suffered his professional defeat to Daniel Dubois – now the IBF world champion – last December in Saudi Arabia and followed it up with last Saturday’s bout with Ruiz.
Miller, who is not in the top 15 rankings of any of the four major sanctioning bodies, is hoping to continue his recent activity by landing a spot on the undercard of the rematch between unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury in Riyadh on December 23.
His preferred opponent? Jared ‘Real Big Baby’ Anderson, who also appeared on last Saturday’s card in L.A and suffered a brutal first defeat to Martin Bakole. Their bout would therefore be a battle of the Big Babies.
“I’d like to fight on the Fury-Usyk undercard,” Miller said. “I said Anderson was going to get messed up. I’ll still fight him in December; there’s only one ‘Big Baby,’ and that’s me.”
