Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller won a high-volume slugfest with a unanimous decision win over Lenier Pero in a WBA heavyweight title eliminator at The Fontainebleu in Las Vegas.
Miller (28-1-2, 22 KOs), 37, made headlines in January when his hairpiece was knocked off during his fight with Kingsley Ibeh. He won the fight but got significant notoriety with the toupee faux pas and sought to ride that momentum into his fight with Pero. He did just that with an all-action brawl against a previously undefeated Pero that saw the two heavyweights combine for an inexplicable 1652 punches thrown.
Fighting out of Las Vegas by way of Camagüey, Cuba, Lenier Pero (13-1, 8 KOs) targeted Miller’s body in the opening round and landed a hard left hook that got the attention of “Big Baby.”
Pero continued to land power shots into the second round, tagging Miller repeatedly with sweeping hooks and uppercuts. However, Miller opted to change his strategy and barreled his way inside in Round 3 and pounded on Pero along the ropes. The shift in the game plan paid off for Miller as the close quarters battle began to wear on Pero and took away his jab.
From that point on, Miller and Pero fought in a phone booth with Miller unleashing a whopping 1003 punches, landing 290 for a 29% clip. Pero was active but couldn’t keep up with the volume by landing 253 of 648 punches (39%) in what appeared to be more of an attempt to not be drowned out by the wide-bodied Miller.
“I knew Pero was going to be tough, but I expected him to move a lot more,” Miller said. “I wasn’t looking for the knockout; I wanted to see what my conditioning was like and get back to throwing a lot of punches.”
Fighting out of Brooklyn, New York, Miller came into the fight weighing 305 pounds, the lightest he had been since his 2018 fight with Johann Duhaupas. His conditioning had been in question in recent fights with him fading down the stretch against Daniel Dubois. However, he was clearly in much better shape and showcased eye-opening volume that wore down his opponent.
Miller began talking to Pero and cranked up the pressure in Round 6, suffocating him with a swarming assault. The war of attrition continued into the second half of the fight, with Miller’s assault sapping the fight out of Pero.
The pace was hectic and both fighters slugged it out in the end, but Miller won over the judges with scores of 117-111, 117-111 and 115-113. After picking up the win, Miller called for a fight with former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder. A fight that his promoter Eddie Hearn was very keen to see materialize.
“The fight to make is Deontay Wilder against Jarrell Miller in New York,” Hearn said. “That’s a big, big fight for American heavyweight boxing.”
Wilder is coming off a split decision win over Derek Chisora in April.
