RISING heavyweight star Jared Anderson faces a new opponent on July 1.
The undefeated 23-year-old had been scheduled to face fellow unbeaten contender Zhan Kossobutskiy but today Boxing Scene reported that the Kazakh has ran into visa issues prompting Anderson’s promoter Top Rank to find a replacement.
Anderson’s homecoming fight at the Huntington Centre in Toledo, Ohio will now see him go up against former IBF titlist Charles Martin 29-3-1 (26) who confirmed the news today on his Instagram page.
The 37-year-old fills the southpaw void left by Kossobutskiy but brings a wealth of more experience into the fight. In the last seven years Martin has shared the ring with Anthony Joshua, Adam Kownacki and Luis Ortiz. However, in that time he has only boxed on nine occasions since the defeat to ‘AJ’ in April 2016.
During his bout against Ortiz in January 2022 Martin was getting the best of the action with the Cuban down twice in the first and fourth round. The veteran recovered and gave the American a taste of his own medicine dropping him on two occasions in the sixth frame. It was at the halfway stage that the fight was concluded when a barrage of shots from Ortiz ended it.
Martin returned to winning ways with a fourth-round knockout win against Devin Vargas on the Andy Ruiz-Luis Ortiz undercard last September.
Anderson is tipped as someone who can break into the top tier at heavyweight where the likes of Joshua, Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder and Oleksandr Usyk reside. With 14 fights and 14 wins inside the distance he is among a bunch of stellar talent at Top Rank who are tipped by many to go all the way in the sport.
