Jarrell Miller is probably going to need that hairpiece back.
The heavyweight boxer experienced a unique problem during his Saturday, January 31, fight against Kingsley Ibeh at Madison Square Garden in New York City when, in the second round of their 10-round bout, Ibeh hit Miller so hard that Miller’s toupee came flying off.
Miller, 36, then ripped off the hairpiece, which was just hanging on his head, and flung it into the crowd — leaving the commentators in disbelief — before completing the rest of the match (Miller won in a split decision over Ibeh).
“That’s like a cartoon!” exclaimed one of the broadcasters.
“And he just took it off and threw it into the crowd!” said the second broadcaster, as the two laughed at the unbelievable moment.
In an interview after the bout, Miller cracked jokes about the viral incident and explained that he accidentally used a shampoo earlier in the week that apparently took his hair off.
“So it’s funny, right? I get to my mama’s house and she has some shampoo bottles on the table, so I shampooed [my hair] and that sh** was like ammonium bleach,” Miller said in the interview. “I literally lost my hair two days ago.”
He said he had to scramble to get a toupee to cover the new bald spot on his head.
“Ibeh knocked that sh** off,” he joked.
He continued, “It’s funny, man. I’m a comedian. You have to make fun of yourself. Thank God, the rush was definitely there. Ibeh was strong. Man, I just thank everybody for coming out and supporting me.”
After Miller tossed the toupee into the crowd between rounds, interim heavyweight champion Fabio Wardley eventually located the hairpiece, giving the souvenir of sorts a ringside seat next to him, according to a post via X, for “safekeeping.”
Mauricio Sulaiman, president of the World Boxing Council, also claimed to have spent some time with the toupee, saying in a social media post that he “found it,” posting photos of the hairpiece beside the rink.
The moment created quite a stir on social media, with users cracking jokes along with Miller about the hilarious situation.
“Poor guy. It is funny, I laughed lol, but I honestly hope he sees the humor in it to [sic] and doesn’t take it to heart,” one user said. “Stuff happens. I can only imagine how embarrassing this must be for him. Hopefully he’s good.”
“At least he was a good sport about it. LOL,” said another.
“Lost his hair but won the match. W’s,” commented another user.
Miller said after the match that part of his healing routine is going to be focusing on getting his hair back on his head. His real hair, that is.
“I just want to heal up. Heal my face a little bit, maybe grow a little bit of hair on the top of my head, I don’t know,” he said. “But just get back into the gym and get back to work. You can’t take life too seriously sometimes, man. You gotta roll with the punches and have fun, man.”
