By Dan Ambrose: Unbeaten heavyweight prospect Bryant Jennings (14-0, 6 KO’s) labored to an unimpressive 10 round unanimous decision over 28-year-old Steve Collins (25-2-1, 18 KO’s) on Saturday night at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The final judges’ scores were 100-89, 100-89 and 100-89.
There’s no question that the 27-year-old Jennings dominated the action from start to finish. However, he looked robotic, stiff and easy to hit throughout the fight. Jennings was lucky that he was in with a non-puncher because if he was facing someone with even halfway decent offensive skills, I think Jennings would have been flattened.
Jennings spent a lot of time circling the ring, throwing multiple hooks, and very few jabs. He seemed to lack big power needed to put Collins away. Collins was there to be stopped, but Jennings needed to unload a flurry of shots for him to take him out. However, he wouldn’t let go with his shots other than throwing a few combinations and then backing off to admire his work.
In the 4th round, Jennings hurt Collins with a right uppercut to the head. He then went after Collins with a minor flurry, but he didn’t have the power to end the fight. In the 5th round, Jennings continued to have his way against Collins, who by then had almost completely stopped punching and was just covering up and looking to survive.
In rounds 6 through 10, Jennings battered Collins with shots but wasn’t able to hurt him. Every once in a while Collins would fire back some nice shots of his own, but he wasn’t able to match Jennings’ workrate.
All in all, I thought Jennings was decent for a B level fighter from the 2nd tier. But I don’t see him competing with the best fighters in the division. I think someone like Seth Mitchell would destroy Jennings.
Comments are closed.