Jennings-Perez & Geale-Macklin on May 24th on HBO

By Boxing News - 04/08/2014 - Comments

geale3By Allan Fox: Unbeaten heavyweight contenders Mike Perez (20-0-1, 12 KO’s) and Bryant Jennings (18-0, 10 KO’s) will be facing each other in a World Boxing Council heavyweight eliminator bout on May 24th at a site still to be determined in the United States on HBO. The winner of the Jennings vs. Perez fight will become the new mandatory challenger for the WBC title, and will fight for the world title in early 2015.

The WBC already has a heavyweight mandatory challenge in Deontay Wilder, who defeated Malik Scott last month by a 1st round knockout to earn the mandatory position. Deontay will be fighting the winner of the May 10th fight between Chris Arreola and Bermane Stiverene later this year for the WBC title. Then the winner of that fight will be required to face the winner of the Jennings vs. Perez fight in their next bout.

In the co-feature fight on the card, former IBF/WBA middleweight champion Daniel Geale (30-2, 16 KO’s) will be facing #9 WBA, #10 WBO, #14 WBC, Matthew Macklin (30-5, 20 KO’s) in a scheduled 12 round bout. Both fighters need a win here to keep alive their title hopes. Geale already could have had a title shot against WBA 160lb champion Gennady Golovkin, but he didn’t take the fight. It’s perhaps a good thing that he didn’t because that would be a bad match-up for him due to the power imbalance.

Macklin fought Golovkin last year in June, but it didn’t work out well for him with Golovkin stopping him in the 3rd after hitting him with a hard body shot that left Macklin on the canvas for a long period of time before he could get back to his feet.

#5 WBC, #8 WBO Perez fought Magomed Abdusalamov last year in a grueling fight that left Abduslamov in a coma briefly. Perez won the fight by a 10 round decision, but it was a very tough fight for him. In his first fight since then, he fought to a 10 round draw against Carlos Takam last January, and he seemed like he didn’t have the same fire that he had in the Abduslamov fight.

“I think it’s a great match between two of the top undefeated fighters in the heavyweight division,” promoter Tom Loeffler said via ESPN. “I believe the winner of this fight will ultimately go on to win the WBC heavyweight championship. Both fighters have already been featured on HBO.”

#4 WBC, #4 WBA, #11 IBF, #9 WBO, Jennings was impressive recently in stopping Artur Szpilka, Andrey Fedosov and Bowie Tupou. Jennings isn’t known for his power, but he throws a lot of punch from different angles, and that makes it tough on his opposition.



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