By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Jarrell Miller doesn’t believe in Anthony Joshua’s power.

The huge heavyweight champion’s antagonist has stressed that Joshua’s 95-percent knockout ratio mostly is the byproduct of his opponents fading, not the strong Brit’s supposed fight-altering strength. The same clearly could be said about Miller’s high knockout ratio (83 percent), but the unbeaten Brooklyn contender is confident his chin will withstand anything Joshua can land during their showdown June 1 at Madison Square Garden.

“His promoter got a sh*tload of money,” Miller said when asked last week about Joshua’s strengths. “As a fighter, he does certain things well. He gets hit pretty well, too. He has an OK jab. His right hand is pretty decent. His left hook is decent. But if you watch and you study AJ, he only hurts his opponent when they’re tired. And a lot of his fights are not knockouts, they’re stoppages. And a lot of them were early stoppages by the referee hand in England.”

Joshua, 29, is commonly considered one of the top three heavyweights in boxing, arguably the best, in large part due to his epic knockout of Wladimir Klitschko in April 2017.

His American nemesis, Deontay Wilder, is widely viewed as the division’s most devastating puncher. Joshua (22-0, 21 KOs) is more well-rounded than Wilder (40-0-1, 39 KOs), yet Miller isn’t a believer.

Joshua is regularly listed as an 8-1 favorite over him. Try telling that to the extremely confident Miller (23-0-1, 20 KOs).

“When you start putting all these numbers in context and do your research,” Miller explained, “and I study everything – I know what the boy ate for breakfast two days in a row. You know what I mean? I study this guy. Some people might say they don’t watch footage and study guys, but I do it because I’m bored and I’m a fighter. I’m obsessed with this sh*t. So, I sit there all day and watch his social media. I watch his trainer’s social media. I watch his best friend’s social media. I watch his mom’s social media. You know? I watch his dad’s social media. I even watch his sister’s social media.

“People said, ‘Man, you’re a little nuts.’ But in order to get to your goals, you’ve gotta be a little nuts. You’ve gotta be a little psycho. And if anybody told me 10 years ago where I’d be today, I’d have told you, ‘Sh*t, I should’ve been here [in] seven years, prior to the 10 years.’ You know what I’m trying to say? Because I was so obsessed with what I wanted, I knew I was gonna get it.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.