I caught up with 20-0 heavyweight Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller about his showdown vs 37-4 Johann Duhaupas at Barclays Center next week, feeding off of the hometown crowd, how Don King prevented his original opponent from fighting him, and potentially stepping into the octagon.
Q. You’re co-headlining at Barclays Center in your hometown of Brooklyn against Johann Duhaupas. You won in impressive passion against Gerald Washington last summer which was in Brooklyn also. How much do you feed off of the energy of fighting in your city and will that start to be a trend of you deciding to headline these major fights at Barclays?
Miller: That’s what we wanna do right now when it comes to fighting in arenas. I feel like with getting a good win over Johann Duhaupas is doing what I do best and that’s kicking butt. I’ll call more shots and do bigger and better things in the future.
Q. In five of your last fights, you were able to put away your opponents early. Is that the strategy also going into this fight or are you preparing for a complete battle against Duhaupas?
Miller: You wanna prepare yourself mentally and physically for the long distance but my goal isn’t going the distance. I don’t get paid by the hour so my main thing is going in there and ending it as early as possible but sometimes you have to go all rounds.
Q.Prior to the Duhaupas fight becoming official, your original opponent was almost Trevor Bryan but due to issues with promoter Don King, that was not completed. What were some problems regarding King that you had to face to get that fight done?
Miller: Don King wanted a piece of my contract and that’s one of the main problems we had with him. He just wasn’t playing fair and those sleazy contracts in boxing are over with. We aren’t doing those kind of things anymore. Trevor Bryan said he wanted to fight and was getting ready for it but it is what it is.
Q. Nowadays, it seems like a trend for many boxers to be interested in MMA. At the beginning of your career, you kickboxed and that is a major component of MMA tactics. Could we expect you to enter the octagon any time soon or will boxing be your niche for the rest for your career?
Miller: I used to be back and worth with kickboxing because I wasn’t getting enough activity as I was with boxing. My main goal right now is to focus on boxing and getting the job done. We can talk about other opportunities later on. Right now it’s about becoming the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.
Q. What is the possibility that we see you take on an Anthony Joshua or Deontay Wilder in the future should they not come to an agreement on a fight?
Miller: I’ll see what happens if I hear something from Eddie Hearn but I wanna get the job done against Johann Duhaupas first. We will definitely exercise any opportunity on the table and whatever best fits me after that fight.
HBO Sports heads to Barclays Center in Brooklyn for an explosive doubleheader when WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING: DANIEL JACOBS VS. MACIEJ SULECKI AND JARRELL MILLER VS. JOHANN DUHAUPAS is seen SATURDAY, APRIL 28 at 10:00 p.m. (live ET/tape-delayed PT), exclusively on HBO. The HBO Sports team will call the action, which will be available in HDTV, closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired and presented in Spanish on HBO Latino.
The fights will also be available on HBO NOW, HBO GO, HBO On Demand and partners’ streaming services.