Jared Anderson vs Marios Kollias Predictions: Don’t blink or you’ll miss this one

Jared Anderson hits the comeback trail this Friday, February 14 against the negligible challenge of Marios Kollias. The heavyweight contest takes place at the Madison Square Garden Theater in New York on the undercard for Denys Berinchyk vs Keyshawn Davis. Sky Sports will air the card live.

Here are my Anderson vs Kollias predictions ahead of this big-man box-off.

Jared Anderson vs Marios Kollias Odds

Anderson is a huge 1/33 to take the win in the Big Apple. Kollias is a Hail Mary of a 10/1 while a draw is priced at 25/1.

Jared Anderson vs Marios Kollias Fight Preview

America convinced itself that ‘Big Baby’ Anderson was the next great Stateside heavyweight. As the sun began setting on the reign of Deontay Wilder atop the domestic heavyweight pile, Anderson emerged from an admittedly anaemic bunch, racking up creditable wins over the division’s C and D players.

No aspiring heavyweight’s resume is complete without names like Jerry Forrest and Andrii Rudenko. Ryad Merhy had held a cruiserweight world title before moving up and cashing out as a gatekeeper. Charles Martin went one better, winning the IBF title and topping lists of history’s worst heavyweight champions ever since. 

These are the men Anderson beat on the way up. Not a world-beater among them but solid enough names for the rise of a prospect. Then came the penultimate leap in quality. Anderson attempted to go from next-big-thing to genuine title contender. That is when he ran into Martin Bakole.

Whether you see his ‘Most Avoided Heavyweight’ tag as factual or promotional, there is a reason that the moniker is how Bakole is known. That reason largely crystallised around his treatment of Anderson.

Before they met at BMO Stadium last summer, Bakole was in a similar boat to his younger foe. He’d fought a similar mix of gatekeepers and former world title challengers. Bakole had beaten the likes of Mariusz Wach, Tony Yoka, Kevin Johnson and Carlos Takam. Respected operators to a man.

But Anderson and Bakole were the first big test in each other’s careers. Both deserve applause for accepting the fight. But only one man could win and it was Bakole who did so, sending the ‘Big Baby’ for a nap in the fifth round.

The fine margins of boxing lay exposed. Bakole is now on the verge of a shot at the world heavyweight championship while Anderson rebuilds against a little-known 12-3-1 fighter by the name of Marios Kollias. The sliding doors are never still in the blue riband division.

Kollias is actually a step down from the sort of fighters Anderson was facing pre-Bakole. That is not uncommon. Boxing is a confidence business and after a knockout defeat, sometimes a boxer just needs someone who is there to be hit.

Kem Ljungquist, best known for getting walloped by Murat Gassiev, beat Kollias on points last year. Attila Levin outpointed the Greek over four rounds one fight after getting knocked out in two rounds by Robert Helenius. Kollias also lost his professional debut to Charilaos Malichoudis, a fighter who retired with a 3-2 ledger and probably wouldn’t even be nominated for a Hall of Fame for people named Charilaos Malichoudis.

There is a reason people were once excited by ‘Big Baby’. He was never the second coming of Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson, George Foreman or even Wilder. But he was a cut above the Martins, Merhys and Forrests. In a sparsely-populated generation of American heavies, that was enough.

Anderson will probably look like that man again against Kollias. If he gets the quick knockout that this fight seems engineered to achieve, the knockout artist’s number might just find its way out of the Riyadh Season rolodex again. But the risk there is that Turki Alalshikh likes to match his heavyweights tough. No more Greek journeymen after this.

Jared Anderson vs Marios Kollias Full Card

Denys Berinchyk vs Keyshawn Davis

Xander Zayas vs. Slawa Spomer 

Jared Anderson vs. Marios Kollias 

Rohan Polanco vs. Jean Carlos Torres 

Vito Mielnicki Jr. vs. Connor Coyle 

Abdullah Mason vs. Manuel Jaimes 

Delante Johnson vs. Quashawn Toler 

Nico Ali Walsh vs. Juan Carlos Guerra Jr. 

Keon Davis vs. Ira Johnson 

Juanma Lopez De Jesus vs. Bryan Santiago 

Jared Anderson vs Marios Kollias Prediction

I think this is Anderson’s ticket back to ride the Riyadh Season ferris wheel again. ‘The Real Big Baby’ knows that he must win and look spectacular to elbow his was back onto Ringmaster Turki’s stacked shows. 

I’m going for Anderson to make short work of this. Kollias is the sort of opponent he should be getting rid of in short order. My pick would be Anderson in rounds 1-3 but to narrow it down further, I’ll take him in the second at 5/1.

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