By Jim Dower: The financial terms have been agreed to between IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (63-3, 53 KOs) for his April 25th fight against #2 WBA, #3 WBC, #5 WBO, #6 IBF Bryant Jennings (19-0, 10 KOs) for their fight on April 25th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
This will be an optional title defense for Wladimir to keep him busy before his title defense against his WBO mandatory challenger Tyson Fury later in the year.
Jennings defeated Mike Perez by a less than impressive 12 round split decision earlier this year in July in a fight where Jennings was handled well by Perez in the first half of the fight. However, Perez ran out of gas in the second half of the fight and this enabled the 222 pound Jennings to come on and win a very close decision.
“Although it’s not signed yet I am told the financial terms have been agreed to on Klitschko-Jennings and contracts have been sent out,” Rafael said on his chat on Friday at ESPN.com. “I’d expect the smaller details to be soon worked out with it to be set after the 1st of the year.”
The 6’3” Jennings doesn’t have the power or the weight to compete against a heavyweight as big as the 6’6”, 245 pound Wladimir, and this could be a really one-sided contest. Wladimir has the option of either using his jab, which is one of the best in the division, or using his power shots to take Jennings out.
Jennings really hasn’t done much to prove himself worthy of a title shot other than his close win over Mike Perez. It would have been better if Jennings had to at least beat someone like Alexander Povetkin in order to earn a title shot against Wladimir, because this fight could turn out to be a really one-sided affair if Jennings looks as bad as he did against Perez. Wladimir is a big step up from Mike Perez, and it’s doubtful that Jennings can improve over the performance that he had in that fight.
Jennings looked like his game was maxed out against Perez, and he probably can’t raise his game to the level he would need in order to beat a fighter like Wladimir. The lack of power is the most worrisome thing about Jennings. He’s going to need power in order to beat Wladimir, and he’s probably not going to be able to find any between now and the time he steps inside the ring on April 25th.
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