By Steve Kim
For the time being world-rated heavyweight, Jarrell 'Big Baby' Miller, is biding his time before he gets a crack at one of the heavyweight titles. But his patience is wearing thin as 2016 comes to a close.
"Man, there's a bunch of chicken coops and a hen,"said the always loquacious and out-spoken heavyweight contender.
"These guys are all running, none of them want to get into a cock-fight, everybody wants to hide from this one, find the easiest opponent to hold onto the belt. Nobody is calling out the other belt-holders and even if they aren't calling the other belt-holders, the mandatories can't even get a fight."
Miller (18-0, 16 KO's) is just getting started on his heavyweight colleagues.
"David Haye went for the money so he got scared and he's not eligible now to fight for the belt," said Miller, referring to Haye's decision to face cruiserweight belt-holder Tony Bellew.
"Hughie Fury didn't want to fight a four-man eliminator, me versus him and Joseph Parker versus Andy Ruiz. And of course, it would've been me versus Joseph Parker. So all of a sudden now that Joseph Parker didn't look so great, Frank Warren wants to push Hughie Fury back in the mix. But you're not eligible anymore. You jumped out of the opportunity, number one, number two is you failed a drug test - which is not even clarified, yet.
"So how are you going to be mandatory for a title shot, number one, when you stepped out on a fight. And number two, you got drug test problems."
On December 10th, Parker won a narrow decision over Ruiz to capture the vacant WBO title. Currently, Haye is rated number one by that sanctioning body, with Fury second, Wladimir Klitschko (who faces IBF champion, Anthony Joshua on April 29th at Wembley Stadium in the UK) followed by Miller.
"It's a big mess going on right now in the heavyweight division and I feel that unless the fans and the media really speak up, nothing's going to happen and nothing's going to change," Miller lamented.
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.