Charles Martin left the ring with a lot of respect for Jared Anderson the night of July 1.
Martin determined after going 10 rounds with Anderson that the hard-hitting contender can become a heavyweight champion. The former IBF champ has an even firmer belief that Anderson wouldn’t beat him in an unlikely rematch if Martin were afforded an entire training camp to prepare for it.
Martin, 37, took their fight on 11 days’ notice because it was a high-profile opportunity for Martin, who didn’t have a fight scheduled when he accepted that bout against Anderson late in June. Anderson, 23, will return to the ring Saturday night just seven weeks after he beat Martin unanimously on the scorecards July 1 at Huntington Center in Anderson’s hometown of Toledo, Ohio.
Martin doesn’t think Ukraine’s Andrii Rudenko is nearly as dangerous an opponent as he was for Anderson, who was supposed to fight Kazakhstan’s Zhan Kossobutskiy (19-0, 18 KOs) on July 1. Anderson went the distance for the first time in his four-year pro career against Martin, who stepped in for Kossobutskiy because Kossobutskiy couldn’t obtain a visa in time to travel to the United States for his fight with Anderson.
“I took Anderson on 10 days’ notice – of course I wanna run it back,” Martin told krikya360.com. “Jared is a really good fighter, but with a full camp and complete preparation and sparring, there is no way he can beat me. I have a feeling his people know this and will keep him away from me. He gonna f*** that Rudenko guy up, though.”
The 6-foot-4, 243-pound Anderson (15-0, 14 KOs) dropped Martin with a right hand to the side of his head toward the end of the third round. Martin (29-4-1, 26 KOs), who has been knocked out by Anthony Joshua and Luis Ortiz, got right to his feet and the St. Louis native took Anderson’s power well for the remainder of a 10-round main event ESPN televised.
The 6-foot-5, 250-pound Martin rocked Anderson with left hands during the middle minute of the fifth round and several seconds before the end of the 10th round. Anderson never went down, though, and he convincingly conquered Martin on the scorecards of judges Dave DeJonge (99-90), Mike Fitzgerald (99-91) and Ben Rochester (99-90).
In Ukraine’s Rudenko (35-6, 21 KOs, 1 NC), Anderson will encounter a 39-year-old opponent who has been beaten by knockout or technical knockout only once in 16 years as a pro.
Undefeated fellow Ukrainian Vladyslav Sirenko (19-0, 16 KOs) defeated Rudenko by sixth-round technical knockout in December 2021 in Brovary, Ukraine. Before Sirenko stopped him, however, Rudenko took WBO interim champ Zhilei Zhang, former WBA champ Alexander Povetkin, unbeaten contender Agit Kabayel, Hughie Fury and Lucas Browne the distance during his first five losses.
ESPN will air Anderson-Rudenko as the main event of a two-bout broadcast scheduled to start at 10:30 p.m. EDT from Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The telecast will begin with another 10-round heavyweight bout, in which Nigeria’s Efe Ajagba (17-1, 13 KOs) will box Kossobutskiy.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.