'Big Baby' Miller in a hurry to be great

Unbeaten heavyweight Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller has the personality to match his size and believes he’s headed for big things entering Friday’s return against Fred Kassi. Rosie Cohe/SHOWTIME

Dan Rafael
ESPN Senior Writer

Heavyweight Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller is outspoken, funny, big, fun to watch and carries dynamite in his fists. He’s just the kind of heavyweight who could excite the masses someday.

Miller (17-0-1, 15 KOs) has been on a steady climb after dumping kickboxing for the sweet science and is slowly but surely making a name for himself among boxing fans.
He has looked good in his three most recent bouts — nationally televised knockouts of Nick Guivas, Donovan Dennis and Akhror Muralimov. They are not top contenders but they were reasonable opponents for Miller at this stage of his career and he dusted all of them.

Miller will take another decent step up in opposition when he faces experienced gatekeeper Fred Kassi in a 10-round fight on Friday night (Showtime, 10 ET/PT) in the main event of a “ShoBox: The New Generation” quadrupleheader at Rhinos Stadium in Rochester, New York.

The 6-foot-4, Miller, 28, of Brooklyn, New York, is in a hurry to get to the top but has the durable Kassi (18-5-1, 10 KOs), 36, of New Orleans, standing in his way.

“Supposedly Fred Kassi is the most durable guy I have fought in my whole entire boxing career,” Miller said. “This is what they are saying and I tip my hat off to the guy. He has been in some fights where I thought he won and he ended up on the wrong side of the decision. When he fought other fighters, he had three weeks training camp, two weeks’ notice. He had two months to get ready for this. I’m not a last-minute opponent. He’s going to come in ready and I’m not about to underestimate him.

“I predict a fifth- [or] sixth-round knockout. I feel once he sees my size and my pressure and the speed that I bring with my footwork, it’s going to be game over for him. I know for a fact I’m going to knock out Fred Kassi. That’s what I do, I take your heart, I take your soul, I take your ribs.”

Miller has taken some heat for his conditioning but said, humorously, that he changed things up for this training camp.

“I’ve made some changes: less cheeseburgers,” Miller said, despite weighing in at a career-high 296½ pounds. “I cut down from three cheeseburgers to one cheeseburger a day. Same thing, in the gym every day, not doing anything different. My main thing is my strength and my speed and we are going to see, come [Friday].”

Miller is calling out everybody of note in the heavyweight division. He’ll need a couple of solid wins against known opponents before he is likely to get the big fights he wants but he said he is putting the division on notice.
Miller not only guarantees a knockout of Kassi on Friday, he predicts it will happen in the fifth or sixth round. Rosie Cohe/SHOWTIME
“They better get motivated now because I’m coming. I’m hungry and I’m motivated,” Miller said. “Showtime is having me on the main event on national television. I’m telling you I’m coming, and I’m coming to stay. They better get ready.

“I’m different to all the heavyweights out there. I’m not chasing a payday. I’m chasing a legacy. I’m trying to change the layout. I’m trying to change the game. I’m trying to change my future and make history at the same time.”

Miller also had much to say about three of the division’s top names, world champion Tyson Fury as well as titleholders Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua, all of whom he said he wants to fight as soon as possible.

On Fury: “I like Tyson Fury. I still want to break his fingers in half but he is good for the sport of boxing and I feel like me and him for a main event will sell any arena out. He talks a lot of smack and he does back it up, but he is still a jokester and I am real. I will smash him if he tries to step on me in the press conference. I will knock him out, same way I will for everyone else.

“A fight between us two will be like Comedy Central on steroids. It would be bananas. It would sell out kind of like a [Floyd] Mayweather-[Manny] Pacquiao [fight]. I feel like we can capture the heavyweight division and put it back on the map, just because of the way he talks.”
On Wilder: “Wilder is a wild man when he gets in that ring, but at the same time if you watch how he performs, he performs at a mediocre level against mediocre fighters. If you stick him to a world professional athlete, like myself or top guys, you’ll see him bring even more. Not saying he hasn’t been in the ring with A+ fighters yet, but you can see all his loopholes in his fighting style. It’s just a matter of time before he gets really exposed and I hope it is with me because I want that behind.

“I want to fight Wilder. If he sees my style, if he sees my footwork, he’ll realize I’m no Artur Szpilka or Chris Arreola. And when I get in there, well, most of my fights end up in knockouts. I’m 100 percent power. Once I touch them, they are getting hurt.”

On Joshua: “Joshua is overrated, overhyped. I am going to break that jaw of his. Definitely one of the weakest of the heavyweight champs. It comes down to the basics. You have a lot of guys that have a lot of punching power and basic skills and that’s not enough. Joshua is a basic heavyweight, a one-two fighter.

“I’d fight Joshua when the timing is right. I personally don’t want to go and fight Joshua just because I’m his ‘next.’ I think that when the time is right, it’ll be me and him at the MGM Grand on pay-per-view. One of those super sweepstakes fights.”

Also on the card: lightweight prospect Mason Menard (31-1, 23 KOs) will face Bahodir Mamadjonov (19-2, 11 KOs), welterweight puncher Bakhtiyar Eyubov (10-0, 10 KOs) will face Karim Mayfield (19-3-1, 11 KOs) and bantamweight Antonio Nieves (16-0-1, 8 KOs) will face Alejandro Santiago (11-2-1, 3 KOs).