Two of Top Rank Boxing’s best young heavyweight stars took to the stage on Saturday night, and both scored easy knockout victories.
Those performances, still good, whichever way you look at it, led to calls that Jared Anderson and Richard Torrez Jr. may be undermatched.
Half of the card ended in stoppages as Anderson and Torrez made light work of Miljan Rovcanin and Marco Antonio Canedo.
Jared Anderson
“The Real Big Baby” Anderson improved to 12-0 and kept up his one hundred percent knockout ratio by knocking out Serbian veteran Rovcanin with a chopping right hand at the end of the second round.
Anderson, from Toledo, Ohio, returned to the ring for the first time in nearly nine months. He certainly made up for the lost time.
The 22-year-old hurt Rovcanin to the body and then focused on the head. Anderson now has nine knockouts in two rounds or less.”
He’s either too good or can be pushed up the rankings ladder quicker.
Speaking after the victory, Anderson said: “I was very calm. I was very patient. Actually, [my trainer Darrie Riley] was more nervous than I was as usual, though.
“I felt very relaxed, pretty much the most comfortable I’ve ever been.
“ButI heard my coach tell me to switch [southpaw]. I listened to him as always, so that was really the reason I switched.”
Richard Torrez Jr
U.S. Olympic silver medalist Torrez Jr. ended his night even earlier to go 3-0 and also remains complete in KO’ing every opponent. He obliterated Marco Antonio Canedo in just 44 seconds.
The triumph is the second first-round knockout for Torrez in as many months.
Torrez, a southpaw from Tulare, California, knocked down Canedo with a straight left hand twenty seconds into the round. He followed up with a crisp combination that culminated with a right hook that properly collapsed Canedo face first.
Turning pro in March following last summer’s Olympic run in Tokyo, Torrez has thus far been as advertised in the paid ranks.
“I am happy with the result, but my thoughts now are with Canedo,” Torrez said.
“He’s a tough man, and I have the utmost respect for him. It happens to the best of us.”
Heavyweight update
An update on Canedo is he was coherent in his corner after what seemed an age. He was severely hurt but should be okay.
Anderson can begin to look at the fringes of the top fifteen before the end of this year. Meanwhile, Torrez could start on Anderson’s heavyweight leftovers from his last five bouts.
We won’t see how good they both are until a better class of opponents steps in their way.
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