By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – The math might not make sense to some people, but Jarrell Miller understands why Fres Oquendo turned down a $500,000 purse to fight him November 17.

Oquendo is 45 and hasn’t fought in four years, yet still was offered half-a-million dollars by promoter Eddie Hearn for a fight Miller would’ve been heavily favored to win.

Chicago’s Oquendo didn’t think three weeks’ notice was enough time to properly prepare for that tough of a fight and reportedly wants Voluntary Anti-Doping Association testing in place for an extended period when he does get the heavyweight title shot the WBA is legally obligated to grant him.

“He’s been waiting around this long, I think he did the right thing per se, because he doesn’t wanna rush for a fight like this, against a big, strong guy like myself,” Miller told BoxingScene.com following a press conference Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. “And he’s gonna get a mandatory shot anyway, so I think it was a great move on his part. Is Matchroom gonna make him an offer for the same money next time around? That’s the situation.”

Brooklyn’s Miller (22-0-1, 19 KOs) instead will meet Romania’s Bogdan Dinu (18-0, 14 KOs) on November 17 at Kansas Star Arena in Mulvane, Kansas (DAZN). If, as expected, the WBA strips Manuel Charr of its WBA world heavyweight title this week, the WBA will sanction Miller-Dinu as a fight for that title.

Charr (31-4, 17 KOs) was supposed to defend that title against Oquendo (37-8, 24 KOs) on September 29 in Cologne, Germany. That title bout was canceled on short notice because Charr tested positive for two anabolic steroids, drostanolone and trenbolone.

That marked the second time Oquendo’s overdue title shot was canceled due to his opponent testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. He was supposed to box Brooklyn’s Shannon Briggs in June 2017, but that bout was canceled on short notice once VADA determined Briggs (60-6-1, 53 KOs, 1 NC) had dramatically elevated levels of testosterone in his system.

Oquendo successfully sued the WBA to enforce the rematch clause he had in his contract for a 12-round, majority-decision defeat to Uzbekistan’s Ruslan Chagaev (34-3-1, 21 KOs) in their WBA title fight in July 2014 in Grozny, Russia. Chagaev has since retired, thus Oquendo will fight someone other than him to fulfill that contractual clause.

“He’s still in a great position, when you think about it,” Miller said, “because he won that lawsuit against the WBA. So he’s still gonna get his mandatory shot at the title. So I might fight him in January, February or March – you never know. The main thing is that he knew that he wanted more time to prepare for this fight, whatever his reasons are. But either way, I’m gonna knock his ass out when that time comes and I’ll be ready for him.”

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