Jarrell Miller vs. Bogdan Dinu headline on Nov.17

Boxingnews24.com

By Jeff Aranow: Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller (22-0-1, 19 KOs) will be fighting Bogdan Dinu (18-0, 14 KOs) in the main event in a fight for the vacant WBA ‘regular’ heavyweight title on Matchroom Boxing USA promoted card on DAZN on November 17 at the Kansas Star Arena, Mulvane, in Kansas.

The undercard has the following fights: middleweight Gabriel Rosado vs. Luis Arias, welterweight Brandon Rios vs. Ramon ‘Inocente’ Alvarez and Claressa Shields vs. Hannah Rankin.

The World Boxing Association hasn’t officially stripped WBA ‘regular’ heavyweight champion Manuel Charr yet, but they’re expected to following his positive test for a banned drug. Charr was planning on defending his WBA title in September, but that fight was canceled after the positive test.

Matchroom Boxing USA promoter Eddie Hearn announced the Miller vs. Dinu November 17 card in a news conference last Saturday night. The card isn’t much of a compelling one due to a lot of the old names, as well as the mismatches, but Hearn has succeeded in putting together a cast of fighters the the hardcore boxing fans are at least familiar with. The only really intriguing fight on the card is the Rosado vs. Aria fight. That’s a match that is hard to predict a winner.

Dinu, 32, has done precious little to rate a title shot during his 10-year pro career. Dinu’s best win of his career is arguably a 3rd round knockout win over journeyman Marcelo Nascimento last year in December. By the time that Dinu steps food inside the ring on November 17, he’ll have been out of the ring for 11 months. That’s disappointing for a fighter that is challenge for a world title. You’d like to see contenders being active with their careers and taking on talented opposition.

“I’ve seen this guy in the camp with (unified world titleholder) Anthony Joshua numerous times. They’ve had great sparring together for two or three camps,” Hearn said to ESPN.cmo about Dinu. “He’s a very, very talented undefeated heavyweight.”

Hearn sounds like he’s working hard trying to justify the Miller-Dinu mismatch by saying how good Dinu is. Unfortunately, there’s nothing on his resume that suggests that to be the case. Hearn says that Miller would be mobbed if he went to the UK. He feels that the boxing fans really want to see him fight Joshua. While that may or may not be the case in the UK, it’s not a case in the U.S. The American boxing fans aren’t excited about seeing Miller face Joshua.

After three consecutive less than stellar performances in Miller beating Johann Duhaupas, Gerald Washington and Mariusz Wach, he finally looked good in destroying 41-year-old former two division world champion Tomasz Adamek by a 2nd round knockout earlier this month on October 6th on Hearn’s DAZN card at the TD Arena in Boston, Mass. Mille, 317 lbs, looked good in smashing Adamek, but he was doing it against a shot fighter that was old and well past his prime.

“My ultimate goal is to fight the bigger names in the division, Anthony Joshua, Dillian Whyte, Deontay Wilder,” Miller said via ESPN.com. “You know I can’t stand that guy. So, let’s get this win and then if Dillian (Whyte) doesn’t fight AJ (Anthony Joshua), I can turn that English Muffin into toasted strudel.”

Miller, 30, is hoping to get lucky and land the Joshua fight on April 13 if #1 WBC, #1 WBO, Dillian Whyte (24-1, 17 KOs) loses his December 22 rematch against Dereck Chisora (29-8, 21 KOs) at the O2 Arena in London, England. Hearn has already said that if Whyte loses to Chisora, then he’ll look to match Miller, who he promotes, with Joshua on April 13. Hearn won’t give the fight to Chisora. The reason for that is obvious. Chisora has lost so many fight, and it wouldn’t go well if Hearn signed him up as Joshua’s opponent on April 13. Using Whyte as Joshua’s April 13th opponent is bad enough, as the boxing world has zero interest in watching Joshua knock Whyte out for a second time.

Last week, Hearn signed 32-year-old former WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios (34-4-1, 25 KOs) to a three-fight contract with his Matchroom Boxing USA stable. Hearn will be matching Rios against Saul Canelo Alvarez’s brother Ramon Alvarez (27-6-3, 16 KOs) in a fight at junior middleweight. Hearn says he’s going to put Rios in big fights, but it’s unknown what the end game is for him. Hearn will be laughed at if he sticks Rios in with one of the talented junior middleweights like Jermell Charlo, Jarrett Hurd or Jaime Munguia. Rios isn’t going to get a title shot against any of the welterweight, because he’s too shot at this point for him to get a crack at a world title. Hearn might do well to feed Rios to Amir Khan or Kell Brook. Those guys look shot as well, but they got enough in the tank to beat Rios without any worry.

Hearn isn’t saying what big fights that he wants to put Rios in, but it would be well if he aimed low like the bottom of the pack at 147 or 154 if he wants to make sure that he doesn’t lose again. Rios was knocked out in the 9th round last February by former two division world champion. Hopefully, Hearn doesn’t start pushing for Saul Canelo Alvarez to face Rios if he beats Ramon Alvarez. Rios needs to fight guys in his own class, like journeymen and fringe contenders. He’s not good enough at this point for him to have a chance of beating beating them.