Jennings Outclasses Ungiadze

By Boxing News - 04/08/2008 - Comments

jennings5754.jpgBy Tony Krebs: WBU welterweight champion Michael Jennings (33-1, 16 KOs) defeated Geoge Ungiadze (12-6, 4 KOs) by a 7th round TKO of a scheduled 8-round non-title bout on Saturday night at the Bolton Arena, Bolton, in Lancashire. The fight, never close to begin with, ended with a flurry of punches in the 7th round as Jennings drilled the defenseless Ungiadze with combinations leading to the referee Phil Edwards stepping in and halting the bout.

Jennings, 30, took the fight as a stay-busy fight, and it turned out to be a one-sided mismatch as the 24 year-old republic of Georgia native Ungiadze had no chance to begin with, having lost four out of his last five fights going into the bout. Jennings for all practical had the fight won going into the bout because Ungiadze was largely an unskilled fighter with almost zero power.

Jennings moved a lot in the opening round, using his accurate jab to pound Ungiadze without stop from the outside. Ungiadze followed Jennings around with his gloves glued to his head trying to cover up and block the many shots that were raining in from Jennings. Unfortunately, Ungiadze didn’t help his case any by not throwing anything back with any kind of regularity. In the entire first round, Ungiadze only attempted a pitiful four punches and each one missed by a long shot.

In the second and third rounds, Jennings up the pace of his offense as he began tagging Ungiadze with right hands and left hooks, none of which Ungiadze came close to blocking. The shorter Ungiadze attempted gamely to get within punching range to get in his own shots, but whenever he would come in close, Jennings would move quickly out of range and drill him with a jab in the process. Though Ungiadze did attempt a few more punches in the round, the outcome was the same with him missing badly each time he let go with a punch.

In rounds four through six, Jennings began unloading with right uppercuts on the inside. This punch, thrown with a great deal of power, had the effect of making Ungiadze take a backwards step as he retreated to the ropes in order to avoid getting hit with additional shots. Jennings, seeing that he had a good thing going, continued in the same line throwing even more uppercuts at the hopelessly outclassed Ungiadze. I do have a lot of respect for Ungiadze, in that he took a lot of punishment and continued to keep coming forward regardless of how many shots Jennings was throwing his way.

In the seventh round, Jennings looked as if he wanted to get Ungiadze out of there for he picked up the pace of his offensive attack by throwing many more sustained combinations. Finally his work paid off when Jennings hurt Ungiadze with a right uppercut, causing him to back up a few steps. Jennings quickly followed after him and unloaded with a flurry of shots which further hurt Ungiadze and prompted for the referee to move in and stop the bout with Ungiadze still standing and trying to cover up in a hopeless manner. Ungiadze looked none too pleased to have the fight stopped on him and immediately protested the stoppage to the referee.

However, it was an excellent stoppage because Ungiadze had taken a non stop pounding from the 1st round and had never been even close to being competitive in the bout. With this bout behind him, perhaps Jennings can move on to better opposition, someone like Young Mutley, who defeated Jennings by a 12-round split decision in January 2006. That would be the ideal opponent for Jennings at this stage.