It’s been expected news for some time, and now it’s official: Top Rank have signed heavyweight Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller, meaning the unbeaten (by everyone but VADA) heavyweight is coming to ESPN.
Miller (23-0-1, 20 KO) is one of boxing’s most controversial names right now, which isn’t all bad if you’re a promoter. The 31-year-old heavyweight from Brooklyn became one of the biggest boxing stories of 2019, but not in the way he wanted. He was signed up to face Anthony Joshua on June 1 at Madison Square Garden, but instead spectacularly failed three drug tests and was pulled from the fight, eventually replaced by Andy Ruiz Jr, and the rest is history there. He and his team went on a now-hilarious rampage of denial, which by the next day saw Miller changing his tune to admitting wrongdoing. He would later kind of backtrack on that, too, but by then it didn’t matter much to anyone.
It was never in question that Miller would eventually be back in boxing. This is not a particularly well-regulated sport, and the fact is that good or bad, he’s got some name value, frankly more now than he’s ever had before. If nothing else, people might tune in to root against him.
By September, it was reported that Top Rank and Miller were in “advanced negotiations,” but the deal kept sitting there waiting to get done. A couple of weeks ago a deal was reportedly verbally in place, and now we’ve got it proper and official.
Another addition to the TR Heavyweight stable 💪
Undefeated Brooklyn native @BIGBABYMILLER is coming to an ESPN platform near you soon. pic.twitter.com/8S7ZInwCEy
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) January 29, 2020
