Jared Anderson's Homecoming Fight Against Charles Martin | JULY 1, 2023

We went over the expectations in the dressing room. Any punches here will be considered a low blow. I expect you to obey my commands and keep making a good, clean fight. I want you to touch him up, scoop back. You never know what you have until you're tested. Jared Anderson is supposed to be the future of the American heavyweight division. Charles Martin has held a belt as a heavyweight champion, and tonight, it's time to test Jared Anderson in his hometown. You can't get to the mountaintop without going through tests and without going through some struggles and going through some resistance. Let's see if Martin can put any resistance or form any type of test for Jared Anderson tonight. And if it comes, Dre, it's gonna come from the backhand from Martin, the straight left hand down the middle. That's his power shot. Martin said, you're gonna see a jabby man in the ring against Anderson because that's my best weapon to keep him off of me. See, bro, what you're saying right now, Jared's taking that jab away because he's there in a fencing battle right now. You see the lead hand, southpaw versus orthodox. The lead hands are matched up together, so you're battling for position. You can go over the top or under. Most times, you want to try to stay on top of it so you can knock it down and land your own jab. So that's what you're seeing right there. Stab jab from Jared Anderson. Says, if you've got a jab, I've got a better jab. And there's Martin trying to set up that second backhand. See, but, Martin, what he's doing is he's going down to the body. No one's tested this young man down to the body, so he's starting early. He wants to bring the attention downstairs to throw the left hand up top. Watch the feet. Watch the feet. You see or hear referee Robert Coyle warning both fighters about that lead foot because when you get a southpaw and an orthodox, as you see there, it's Jared Anderson stepping on the foot of Charles Martin and then steps on the gas with a right hook to the chin. See, Jared Anderson already putting a lot of pressure, subtle pressure on Charles Martin to not give Martin a chance to think, set up his game plan, and in the meantime, Anderson is starting to land those single shots. A nomination from Jared Anderson who said, look, I didn't specifically work on my physique for this camp, but all the hard work, that made me chisel. That's a great byproduct of hard work. Need to be chiseled. The ones that get chiseled tend to get clipped at some point in time. They need to be tight around the midsection, and they need to have supple muscles, and Jared Anderson has that. And they get tired easier. That's true. All those big muscles are going to do is get you fatigued when you start throwing a lot of punches. You see the respect of Anderson for the experience of Charles Martin early in this fight, which is smart. It's the prudent thing to do. This is a veteran guy. He's got to win, and he loads punches and try to get a big knockout. Ooh, Jared gets clipped there with a straight left from Martin, and then we see the action here picking up in the final seconds of the opening round. Jared Anderson is coming off of a third-round knockout after five consecutive second-round knockout wins, but tonight he's in against a taller, longer, more experienced former world champion, but we saw the connect percentage favor Anderson at 50% to 17% in the opening round. The biggest asset for Jared Anderson tonight is controlled aggression. He can't get touch with a punch like he did in the first round and try to leap in or try to rush to get it back because the veteran Martin is waiting on that to let that left hand go. He's got to keep his emotions in check. Yes, he's at home, but he's got to break Martin down incrementally. Nice jab there from the veteran Martin. The biggest question you always have for a young prospect is what is going to happen when they finally get hit by a real heavyweight punch, but the question is, can Martin take the punches of Jared Anderson? Martin's going to have to do what he told us he was going to do in the fighter meeting, which is jab. Anderson is prodding and pushing down on the jab of Martin. Martin has to do the same thing and then shoot the actual jab because trying to land one big shot against this elusive heavyweight is going to be very difficult, especially early on. This is a lot of pressure coming from Jared. A ton of pressure early on. But Martin is looking for him to make one mistake. He's watching. Yeah, but Jared is staying close enough, looking for Martin to make mistakes, so that way he can hit him in return. When you take on a fighter with 33 rounds of experience who has been in there with the best heavyweights in the world, you realize that those bad habits, those mistakes, you cannot afford to make at this level. But so far, Anderson's staying within himself and setting up the shots like he did there with the one-two. Martin really doesn't need to be moving like this. Anderson not giving him any room to do so. He really shouldn't be moving like this, allowing Jared to land shots on the end of his punches. He's giving up a lot of energy. Why not try to push Anderson backwards? Why not try to be mid-range and then close to see if the young fighter can deal with that? I think he's giving up too much ground. Because that's not his style, Dre. His style is a counterpunching style. He doesn't like to move forward. He likes to fight off the back foot. But I hear what you're saying. See, what Martin has just realized is is that he can't outthink Jared. Jared is too smart, too quick, too athletic. Good shot right there from Martin. Doubling up with the left hand down the middle. As the fight progresses, one of the questions we will see is how does Jared Anderson cut off the ring against the fighter with the mobility of Charles Martin? Two rounds in the book. Mark Crego keeping our official scorecard here. 20 to 18 so far, and 28 to 10 when it comes to punches landed through the first two rounds. Jared Anderson tends to be a fighter who is on the more active side, but he's a little bit off pace tonight. He averages 62.9 punches per round. So far, he's got 67 through two rounds, and that's a sign of respect for the experience of Martin. We'll see how things heat up. Martin right there investing in the body. Knows that he can't hit Jared to the head. And he's throwing the straight left hand down to the body. You see the power of Jared Anderson. Even when those are glancing shots on the head of Charles Martin, he still moves the former champion. Martin has to try to get some respect early. He's got to try to get some respect to at least make Jared Anderson think before he comes in there. Jared is doing what he wants to do right now, and Martin hasn't landed anything significant to this point. Because he hasn't planted his feet the entire time. And I don't buy the fact that he's just a counterpuncher. He's a former champion. He's been around a long time. He knows how to come forward. But when you heard his game plan yesterday in the fighter meeting, for some reason, they thought moving away from the smaller man was a good idea, and I think he should try to press forward because he's not having much success right now. And the reason for that game plan, is he wants to take them deep. He wants to test the conditioning of the young man because Jared hasn't been past six rounds. And Christina Poncher was in the corner of Charles Martin. What do you have, Christina? Yeah, Dre, not sure you're gonna be too happy with this instruction because the Martin corner told me that they want Charles to move more than he's moving right now. Maybe, to your point, Tim, getting to those later rounds. Want him to work his jab a little bit more and stay away from Jared's right hand. Well, Jared's yet to go past six rounds as a pro and really yet to lose a round as a pro with all those knockouts he's been able to distribute. And I think that's a good mindset if you want to take the younger fighter who hasn't gone around deep, but you got to land something in the meantime. You got to throw. And you see Martin doing more of that now. He's not throwing while he's going backwards. He's standing his ground and throwing, and that's when he's landing. He's got to do more of it. Anderson goes to the southpaw stands, and now Martin's looking in a mirror. And Jared Anderson has to be alert at all times. Does that put him closer to danger, the fact that he's southpaw now? I don't think he's necessarily closer to danger. He's in there. He knows what he feels. And when you're a switch hitter, you switch, it's a feel thing. It's not an instruction thing most of the time. So he must feel good. The former champion goes back to his corner, but the crowd is absolutely enjoying this. Yeah, switching to southpaw stands to try to create new openings for himself. You see Jared Anderson right there slipping the shot, throws the left hand, sees something coming, slips the shot, and counters in between. You see the wrist balled up there or bent back. He didn't get a chance to turn that all the way over. If he would have turned it over, it probably would have been lights out. A nice cupping shot right there from Jared Anderson to produce that knockdown. Foreign object inside the ring momentarily, but round four is off to a start here, and Jared Anderson threw three rounds, 35 of 101 punches. Keep in mind, this is a fighter who has thrown over 100 punches in a round before in Jared Anderson. Right, but that's not what the doctor ordered tonight. You got to know when to switch that up. You have a one-set mind, then everybody knows he's gonna try to throw X amount of punches. You do what you need to do, and Jared Anderson has discerned in this fight and in this moment what he needs to do. Be economical, be smart, and make every shot count. Yeah, but he's fighting a dangerous puncher. You just can't rush in there and throw lots of shots. You give him an opportunity. Ooh, just getting out of the way of that. You give him a lot of opportunities when you're throwing punches. And then knock something hard in between. That knockdown may have woken up Charles Martin, who's got 26 knockouts in 29 victories, so he knows how to punch. It's just, is he willing to commit against a puncher like Jared Anderson, who's 14 of 14 when it comes to knockout wins? Look, Charles is a veteran. He's looking for the long haul. He's not looking for the short haul. He's thinking about 6, 7, 8 when Jared starts. If he's looking for Jared to get a little lackadaisical, so that way he can go to work. I don't know if that's gonna happen, but we will see. That's a risky proposition, Dre, of giving all those rounds away. Especially when you get hit in the head in the meantime and you could possibly get knocked out. I think you should bank for the later rounds by putting money in the bank with the punches you throw and the punches you land, so it depends on what you're willing to live with come Sunday morning when you wake up, your performance. I believe, being Martin, given where he is in his career and given this opportunity, I'm gonna try to give it everything I have and still take the young fighter late, but I'm not gonna let him beat up on me in the process. Look it, Jared is still somewhat fresh right now. His reflexes don't point, but he keeps pulling back. That is something that I've been telling him and I've been trying to preach to him and saying, hey, that's a cardinal sin. You pull back, eventually you will get caught with something. Martin has had minimal success when he lets his hands go and stands his ground. He hasn't had success at all backing up a lot. That just gives Jared Anderson confidence, that gives him leverage, and that allows Anderson to load up the big shots. That was a left from Martin, but then Anderson comes back with a flurry of punches and now he's walking down the world champion who misses over the top. Right now, it's the Jared Anderson show. Yep, and what did I tell you? You put that pressure on this guy, I'm telling you, soft in the middle. He don't like it. Ding dong by Southpaw, and he's getting beat up. I suggest he let his hands go. Oh, whoop. You see Anderson starting to heat up here in the fourth round, and he said this fight won't go past five, so the bell is gonna toll for this end of the fourth round. We'll see what happens in the next one. 51 of 140 punches at a 36% accuracy rate. That is above the heavyweight average, but below what Jared Anderson usually lands at, which is 42%. But no matter how much success Anderson is having right now, Martin will be dangerous until this fight is over. You see Marks and Martin now not moving backwards. He's looking to stand his ground. That's what he's gotta do. Standing in the center of the ring right now. Last time I checked, he's the bigger fighter. Mark Kregel, your scorecard through four completed rounds. Oh, I got four rounds and nothing. What you're seeing, it's amazing to me. What is Martin's, and he slipped it. Jared has slipped it just about every single time. And there it goes again. Finally, we see that left land for Anderson. I mean, on Anderson, and Martin finally lets his hands go, but there's always an answer from the real big baby who once again gets tagged by the left of the former world champion. The problem with Martin's best shot being the left hand is that Anderson knows it too. He knows that he's gonna try to throw wild shots. He said, every 15, 20 seconds, I gotta be ready for a big desperate shot. The left eye of Charles Martin starts to swell here, and that's the last thing you want to happen if you're the regular champion. And all that's gonna do is wake Jared Anderson. Oh, how he responds. Pulled straight back. Got him in trouble. Pulled it straight back. Got him in trouble. Woke him up, though. There it is, Jared Anderson on instinct, not intelligence here. This is exactly the question that we want answered here. Martin was dangerous early in the fight. A big left. Jared Anderson looks up at the clock. There's still 50 seconds, and it's landing at will for Charles Martin here, and Anderson's gonna have to dig deep. He's got a situation in heavyweight boxing. Anything can happen. Anything can get dropped or knocked out within a split second. The clock is Jared Anderson's best friend and enemy, but Martin, if he keeps throwing, he's gonna keep connecting because Anderson's legs are not under him yet. He's gotta tighten up Anderson, his defense, and not be so leaky. Like Tim said, pulling back with his feet in place. That's how he got caught, and that's how he's gonna get caught again. He got Clint Anderson showing a huge chin here in the fifth round. The mupperation he's seen in his entire 15-fight career hometown. Trying to cheer on Jared Anderson, who was in real trouble in round number five. So the game plan switch for Martin worked. He started standing his ground. Now he's going back. I think he's backing up now. Maybe he needs to revise in the last round. Yes, in that last round. Threw a ton of punches. Oh! What a counter right hand from Charles Martin. Now it's the right landing on Jared Anderson. That's a punch that hasn't been on the radar and a punch that he hasn't thrown very much in this fight to right hook. Questions being asked of the young prospect, Jared Anderson, and one of those questions is always what's gonna happen when you get hit and what's gonna happen when you keep making the same mistake? Jared Anderson needs to tighten up his defense. He needs to tighten up his defense because Martin is not breathing hard even though he needs a break. He still seems to be in good shape. He will recover. And guess what? He's gonna be looking for another win. That's what he's doing right now. He's ironed. He's buying some time. And he's looking for that straight left hand. But he only lands, Martin, when he stands his ground or when he's coming forward. Would I say early on? Yes. His athleticism was coming through. He was fully charged. As he starts his... As his energy starts to drain, now he's not as quick getting out of the range. That's why you see Martin landing with that straight left hand as Jared pulls straight back. I think Anderson needs to focus on quickness, not power. The power can... He needs to win a couple rounds, get his feet back under him. No, I'm still here. What Anderson needs to do is do what he's doing now. Win this fight with his jab. Keep the jab in his face so he can't set his feet, and he has to keep on resetting. Charles Martin's nickname may be The Prince, but today he's asking the questions as he lands another on Jared Anderson and seems to connect a shot of his own. We talked about being your typical last-minute replacement that you get off the couch. He was preparing for a fight on the Ryan Garcia-Tank Davis undercard, and you could see that preparation showing tonight. He told us he'd been in the gym for the past 10 or 11 months. He wasn't surprised when he got the call to fight Jared Anderson. In fact, he anticipated that. Now he's here. This is his moment. Good shot right there from Jared. Small right hand on the inside. You see the left arm right now, Martin, by his midsection. He's protecting. That hurt him. There's another right hand. Jared notices it, too. Ooh, that's had a month. Jared Anderson awakes up here in round six. Jared just faked like he was going down to the body and came up top. See, small adjustments right there, like Tim said, just Jared going to the body with the right hand instead of the head could start to change this. Well, Jared's already up, but start to change the momentum back in his direction after getting hurt in that previous round. Charles Martin told us in the fighter meetings, I've never seen Jared go to plan B. I'm gonna ask that question, and Jared, for the first time, we'll see round seven. First time Jared Anderson sees round seven as a pro through six. Mark Kregel, what's your scorecard look like? Or what'd you think about that last round for Jared? Every round except for five for Jared, that's the first round he lost in his career. And the question is, how would he bounce back? And he did it with the best, most important punch in boxing, the jab. Show me something in that last round. And he's gonna have to continue showing something against Charles Martin, who has proven to be dangerous when he decides to commit inside the ring. First time for Jared getting past round six. He said this fight wouldn't go past five. That jab from Anderson is bothering Martin. It's pesky. It's in his face. Be a good opportunity for Anderson to flick that jab real quickly and come behind the right hand and finish with a left hook. Yeah, and I also like the feints coming from Anderson as well. You can offset your opponent with strong feints. The jab, okay, pulling straight back again, but the jab also works and offsets your opponent. He has to regroup every time he gets hit in the face with that jab. Beautiful thing about the jab is it doesn't align you. Your opponent has to contend with it, even if it doesn't land. It's the key to your offense, and you can throw it down to the body like Jared did. You can throw it to the face like he does there. You're in round seven. He left from Jared Anderson. Doesn't catch Martin clean. Still opportunity for Anderson. Ooh, nice body shot. That hurt for Martin. Saw Jared play it off. He calls for a second, but still didn't. Decided like, nah, I ain't gonna show you hurt me. I'm coming forward. That left hand to the head of Anderson also landed as he lands a right hand of his own. Tense moments for Jared Anderson here in the seventh round of a scheduled 10-rounder, his homecoming fight. First headliner, first time up against a former champion, and he starts with a lead right and follows up with a left. See, that was smart from Jared right there. That's IQ. He attacked. He attacked Martin on the cross step. If you look at Martin's footwork, ooh, good shot. That's a nice right hand from Anderson. When Martin is moving to his left, he actually starts moving with his back foot. He crosses his legs. Check this out. Anderson should finish with that sweet hook. He's landing a good right hand. He's in position to throw it, and Martin is open for it. Anderson needs to jab right hand and finish with the left hook. Martin trying to do something, trying to change it up a little bit and instead of throwing a straight left hand, the left hook is wide open for Jared Anderson. He's throwing an uppercut now, looking for the uppercut. Uncharted waters for Jared Anderson. Good shot. As he's now in deep waters against Charles Martin. Jared Anderson is ranked number seven by the WBO, and tonight that is being put to the test because usually he's a big puncher, throwing a lot of punches, but here he's only outthrowing his opponent, Charles Martin, by 41 punches over seven rounds. That's okay. It's not about how much he's throwing. It's how much he's landing, and he's landed plenty thus far in this fight. And almost double, 101 to 56 is the number that counts. That's the important one. Although Martin has made his count because that left hand shook up Jared Anderson momentarily there. Jared has made some changes. Yeah, he's fighting a southpaw right now, so he's able to see that left hand come down the middle. You hear the crowd trying to get Jared Anderson going. They want to see a little bit more from him. This crowd has been amazing tonight. For the undercar fights, all the local fighters from Ohio, different cities in Ohio, they've been phenomenal. There's a jab into that left hand from Charles Martin as Jared Anderson forced to tie up on the inside. It's working, Charles Martin. See, but that punch seems like it hurt him because of the way he's pulling straight back, but he took a lot of steam off that punch being at the right range. But the judges, they see that movement here also, so you got to make sure that you don't commit those mistakes. I'll say it again, fellas. Jared Anderson needs to shoot a right hand to the body over the top, shoot a right hand to the head, left hook over the top. Whatever he throws, he needs to finish with a left hook because Martin is wide open for it. He's not defending for it. And Anderson is in position. He just has to throw him. Hit that gas tank. That was a straight right from Jared Anderson who's starting to get inside the range despite his disadvantages in reach and height. Good body work right there. Disrespectful shots to the body. And you're starting to see the mouth open from Martin. Mouth is starting to open up. He's starting to gas a little bit. Those body shots open up the head shots from Jared Anderson. I'm about to get ugly right now. I'm sensing something. How about that? Yeah, I'm sensing it. I'm feeling the energy right now of Martin. Ooh, nice left from Martin, but Anderson was able to just evade it. And Anderson keeps looking up at that clock, and he got clipped with that left uppercut from Martin there. Ooh, that was a straight shot from Martin as Anderson was loading up. Jared having a dig deep here in his homecoming fight, and this crowd will take him to the end of round number eight and give him the energy he needs. Big puncher in Jalalabad. Welcome to the top-ranked stable. We hope to see him August 26. And here we see the punch differential at 41%. Anderson getting closer to his 42% accuracy rate. Charles Martin, though, still dangerous as he gets clipped with a short left hook from Jared Anderson here in round nine for the first time as a pro. The deep waters that Anderson had never swam in. And as Martin says, that's where I want to take over. Ooh, Martin now took a page out of Jared's book. He said, okay, I can land my shots, too, to the body. Just landed two straight left hands down to his body. It's good for the gooses, good for the gandum. Ooh, nice left hand there from Jared. Martin was trying to set up that left hook off the jab, and Anderson was quick with it and lands a left hook of his own. Man, that's just creative offense from Jared right there, using that jab to sweep around with the left hook, timing it. Southpaw stance, goes down to the body, does Anderson, avoids the right hand of Charles Martin and doubles up on the jab. Ooh, nice right hook downstairs. Martin confused right now, saying, how can I hit this man with my best shot? Jared has made adjustments. Martin hasn't. Low blow. Murphy, Robert Hoyle has really been very good because he hasn't gotten in the way of the action. He's one of the best in the business, Robert Hoyle. Yes. Anderson can step this thing up because Martin is fatigued, and he can put both hands, put a big shot for Martin, but really try to see if he can get Martin out of there. The crowd is electric here in the Huntington Center, Toledo, Ohio. Hyping up their boy, Jared Anderson. 14-0, 14 knockouts. Can he get 15? He's on his way. 1-2 as Martin now starts to bleed. Straight left hand from Jared Anderson, who's now in stalking mode. See the athleticism, you see the speed, you still see the punch and power from Jared. It's the latest he's been in his career, nine rounds. Young man's in shape. Oh, nice left from Charles who puts him to the test, and it's still a fight, boys. 139 to 75, the punch has landed so far. Round 10, Jared Anderson never been this far as a pro. Landing that left hand, and you see the ponytail of Charles Martin. They didn't have him tape it up or anything like they did Berman Stiverne when he fought Deontay Wilder. Look from the southpaw stance. You have Jared, Jared doesn't have to worry about the left hand too much because he got his lead hand in front. It's not lying straight up. If he's in orthodox stance, it's lined up. He could be hit with the straight left hand, but when this stance right here, the southpaw stance mirroring him, he don't have to worry about that left foot or the left hand of Martin. He ducked under the left hand. Yeah, but from this stance right here, this is where he has to worry about. That's where he was hurt earlier, when he was in the right, in the orthodox stance. But Martin was throwing it in the fifth round. He's not throwing it anymore. There's that short left hook from Anderson that has really come off from in the last couple of rounds. Lead right followed by the left. The activity, Jared Anderson here, evident as he clips Martin coming in. Anderson is trying to get that close that he knows the hometown fans want to see, a knockout. One, two, snapping the head of Charles Martin. Whether he gets the knockout or not, you're talking about ten quality rounds that he had to work tonight that probably... This is against a quality fighter. Yes. This is a guy who had been training, and you can't take this away from Jared Anderson, and he faced some adversity and responded well. Last-minute switch, too, Jared. Last-minute switch as well. You gotta add that. Give it up for Toledo, Ohio. This crowd is electric, and Jared is feeling it. All great wins do not have to be knockout wins. Ladies and gentlemen, here inside the Huntington Center, Toledo, Ohio, after ten rounds, we go to the judges' scorecards for the official decision. Mike Fitzgerald scores the bout 98-91. David DeYoung and Ben Rochester both have it 99-90, all in favor of your winner by unanimous decision. And still WBO international and WBC USA heavyweight champion from right here in Toledo, Ohio, Jared the Real Baby! Baby is now 15-0, and he was tested tonight. He proved to be vulnerable to the left, but able to have that grit, that heart, and make those adjustments that took him to victory.