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By Thomas Gerbasi - Jarrell Miller confirms with a laugh that “No kicks were thrown,” during his sparring sessions with Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko, even though members of the trio had (and have) plenty of experience using their feet as well as their fists.
But during several training camps with the dominant heavyweight champions, it was all boxing. Well, 99.9% boxing.
“Vitali did try to kick the bag and we were laughing when he threw it,” Miller recalls. “He said ‘it’s been a long time.’ But sparring with those guys was great. The first sparring camp was probably the roughest. I didn’t know what to expect, and I was the only sparring partner left in the first camp.”
By the sixth or seventh camp though, Brooklyn’s Miller was holding his own, and it wasn’t a small confidence builder for a young man walking the line between two sports – boxing and kickboxing. But eventually, if a fighter is serious about making a run at a world title, he has to choose one or the other. And when the 26-year-old Miller steps into the ring at the Grand Casino in Hinckley, Minnesota for a six-rounder against Raymond Ochieng, he will do so as a full-time boxer.
“I’m strictly putting all my attention and focus into boxing now,” Miller said. Maybe he just got tired of getting kicked in the leg.
“It wasn’t really the leg kicks,” he laughed. “I want more money. The money wasn’t too bad in kickboxing, but I got approached by a couple different promotional teams and I got an all right offer, so I felt that if there was a time to move on boxing, this was it.”
Working with Greg Cohen Promotions and Dmitriy Salita’s Star of David Promotions, Miller is currently 11-0-1 with nine knockouts, and he’s fighting opponents (like the 26-18-3 Ochieng) that prospects with 12 bouts fight. He knows it too, though at the same time, he comes from a kickboxing world where he was competing against some of the best in the sport on a regular basis. It’s quite a change in worlds to those looking from the outside, but he believes it all works out in the end. [Click Here To Read More]
But during several training camps with the dominant heavyweight champions, it was all boxing. Well, 99.9% boxing.
“Vitali did try to kick the bag and we were laughing when he threw it,” Miller recalls. “He said ‘it’s been a long time.’ But sparring with those guys was great. The first sparring camp was probably the roughest. I didn’t know what to expect, and I was the only sparring partner left in the first camp.”
By the sixth or seventh camp though, Brooklyn’s Miller was holding his own, and it wasn’t a small confidence builder for a young man walking the line between two sports – boxing and kickboxing. But eventually, if a fighter is serious about making a run at a world title, he has to choose one or the other. And when the 26-year-old Miller steps into the ring at the Grand Casino in Hinckley, Minnesota for a six-rounder against Raymond Ochieng, he will do so as a full-time boxer.
“I’m strictly putting all my attention and focus into boxing now,” Miller said. Maybe he just got tired of getting kicked in the leg.
“It wasn’t really the leg kicks,” he laughed. “I want more money. The money wasn’t too bad in kickboxing, but I got approached by a couple different promotional teams and I got an all right offer, so I felt that if there was a time to move on boxing, this was it.”
Working with Greg Cohen Promotions and Dmitriy Salita’s Star of David Promotions, Miller is currently 11-0-1 with nine knockouts, and he’s fighting opponents (like the 26-18-3 Ochieng) that prospects with 12 bouts fight. He knows it too, though at the same time, he comes from a kickboxing world where he was competing against some of the best in the sport on a regular basis. It’s quite a change in worlds to those looking from the outside, but he believes it all works out in the end. [Click Here To Read More]
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