By Steven Cummings
Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller outslugged previously unbeaten Lenier Pero over 12 rounds to earn a unanimous decision victory on Saturday night in Las Vegas. The main event of the DAZN broadcast saw both heavyweights tire early, but the 37-year old Anderson had more energy throughout than his 33-year old opponent. Official scores were 117-111, 117-111 and 115-113.
Miller (28-1, 2, 22 KOs) presumably added more quality fights to the back end of his career with the clear-cut victory. While it wasn’t a great fight to watch, Miller threw over 300 punches and used that incredible work rate to outscore Pero (13-1, 8 KOs.
Pero, a 2016 Olympian for Cuba, came out quickly and out fought Miller over the first two rounds. He got a couple of big left hands in from his southpaw stance and was busier at the outset. But when the bell rang for round three, Pero seemed to downshift. From there, the two fought mostly in close quarters, with Miller outworking his younger opponent. Any hopes that Miller would fade as the fight wore on were cancelled out by Pero’s visible fatigue.
Jarrell Miller continued his comeback from his only career loss, a TKO10 at the hands of Daniel Dubois in 2023. A disputed draw with Andy Ruiz followed that in 2024, and then a SD10 over Kingsley Ibeh this past January. Tonight’s fight was labeled a WBA title eliminator but that may or may not lead to anything.
In a hall-of-fame worthy post-fight interview, Miller called out Deontay Wilder, as did Eddie Hearn moments later. The off-the-charts charisma factor would seem to help Miller get onto one of the many pay-per-view cards in the future.
ALAN CHAVES KO3 OVER MIGUEL MADUENO
Lightweight Alan Chaves of Argentina scored a highlight-reel, one-punch knockout of veteran Miguel Madueno. Chaves (22-0, 19 KOs) drilled Madueno (31-5, 28 KOs) with a brutal left hand to the jaw, freezzing the Mexican in his tracks before falling over like a tree. The fight was waved off at 1:26 of round three.
