Heavyweight Jared Anderson, 17-0, 15 KOs, was disappointed with his performance against Belgian Ryad Merhy, 32-3, 26 KOs, in Corpus Christi, Texas, despite claiming a comprehensive unanimous decision.
Anderson was booed thanks, in part, to Merhy’s lack of ambition and the Toledo-based heavyweight won by a wide margin.
Anderson’s next fight will be in the courtroom. The unbeaten heavyweight will appear in front of a judge on April 15 to discover his fate regarding driving offences.
Anderson was unimpressed with Merhy and said he needs to make changes to progress further along the heavyweight ranking ladder.
“Another day, another night in the office. I wanted to give the fans a better show but what can you do when they don’t wanna show up just to fight like you,” Anderson told ESPN post-fight.
“Ten rounds – that’s the biggest takeaway. I gotta make some changes. I made some mistakes. I got hit with a few punches, but I shouldn’t have gotten hit at all. He didn’t even come to fight, so I shouldn’t have gotten hit at all.
“The fans, as much as I love them, they can’t take care of me if I get hurt, or I get brain damage or something. So my goal is to get hit the least, so that’s what I tried to do tonight. I tried to get hit the least and just win. It was an ugly night of boxing, man, but I got the W, so we move on,” added Anderson.
Tyson Fury, Anderson’s stablemate and the WBC heavyweight champion, has hailed the Ohio native as the future of heavyweight boxing and Anderson is expected to return to his hometown of Toledo to box in the summer.
Anderson is also still targeting the bigger names in the division, believing he will start his run towards a version of the heavyweight crown soon.
“I want all of them. If I’m ranked with you and your name is near mine, we can get it cracking, man,” Anderson added. “We’re coming to knock everybody off. We’re coming for those titles and we’re coming to f****** win.”