REMEMBER the name Jared ‘Big Baby’ Anderson.
Because in a couple of years it’s likely it will be on the lips of every boxing fan lauding him as the new world heavyweight champion.
Anderson, unknown on this side of the Atlantic, is America’s latest exciting prodigy.
Making his debut at Madison Square Garden he demolished Ukrainian Oleksandr Teslenko inside two rounds last Saturday.
The hard-to-please New Yorkers couldn’t fail to be impressed as Anderson, a handsome, beautifully proportioned 6ft 4in, 17st 22-year-old with a lethal right-hand punch, won his 11th pro fight to maintain his 100 per cent knockout record.
It must be said — just like Mike Tyson’s early victims 36 years ago — jolting Jared’s opponents have been carefully hand-picked to make him look special.
But there’s a very good reason why we should be taking this baby from Toledo, Ohio seriously.
He has the formidable weight of promoter Bob Arum’s vast knowledge and experience backing him to the hilt.
Arum, who turned 90 last week, has a track record second to none when it comes to turning young raw talent into elite world champions.
Sitting in Bob’s Las Vegas office 25 years ago, he told me he had just signed a kid called Floyd Mayweather Jr, who was going to be as good as Sugar Ray Leonard. He was almost right.
Apart from Leonard and Mayweather, Arum’s star-studded cast list included Marvin Hagler, Roberto Duran, Manny Pacquiao, Oscar De La Hoya, Alexis Arguello and George Foreman.
He also promoted 27 of Muhammad Ali’s fights.
Arum sees a great future for Anderson and he certainly hasn’t been as enthusiastic about a young prospect for years.
Bob said: “Jared is a good size heavyweight and I loved watching him spar with Tyson Fury in Vegas a couple of months ago.
“If you get a guy who is a heavyweight, who starts young and wins the heavyweight championship, then you not only have a superstar but a hugely bankable athlete.
“He’s a fun kid. He’s got a nice smile, he’s intelligent and he’s not full of himself. He just has a limitless future. I’m really high on the kid.”
For reasons that are difficult to understand, boxing promoters, unlike impresarios in other branches of sport and entertainment, have been a much-maligned breed.
Arum, a Harvard law graduate, has been responsible for creating multi-millionaires out of penniless novices.
He started at the top by staging Ali’s third world title defence against George Chuvalo, in March 1966.
Remarkably, in the following 55 years he’s put on 677 world title battles, masterminded 2,120 shows in 220 US cities in 42 of the 50 States and the Arum brand has been seen in 92 foreign locations.
He certainly has no intention of retiring, saying: “If God gives me the ability to live long enough to stay around ten more years, I will continue to promote fights.”
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Amusingly, for all his achievements and longevity, Bob will be remembered for his ten-word answer when giving evidence in court.
Under cross-examination, the prosecuting attorney said: “Mr Arum, you are saying the opposite of what you said yesterday.”
Bob, unfazed and without turning a hair, replied: “Yesterday I was lying, today I am telling the truth.”
