By Scott Gilfoid: IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (63-3, 53 KOs) sees his opponent Bryant Jennings (19-0, 10 KOs) as Rocky Balboa-like with the way that he moves and talks.
Wladimir will be defending his title against Jennings on 4/25 in Madison Square Garden in New York. This is important fight for Wladimir, because it gives him the opportunity to fight in front of an American crowd.
The last time that Wladimir fought in the United States was back in 2008 when he fought Sultan Ibragimov at Madison Square Garden. It wasn’t a great performance from Wladimir, who treated Ibragimov like he was a knockout artist instead of a fighter with average power.
“I see how Bryant Jennings acts. I see how he walks, I see how he shakes hands, I see how he speaks, and he has the qualities of Rocky Balboa from Philadelphia,” Wladimir said.
Klitschko is really reaching here in comparing Jennings with actor Sylvester Stallone’s “Rocky Balboa” character. Jennings has nothing in common with Balboa other than coming from Philadelphia.
Wladimir might be hoping that if he mentions Jennings being like Balboa that boxing fans might show more interest in his fight with him, but I don’t think that’s going to work if that’s his angle.
Wladimir beat Kubrat Pulev in his last fight. Pulev proved to have a fragile chin. Jennings should prove to be a lot more durable, so hopefully for Wladimir’s sake he’s planning on sticking around for the long haul.
“Thank you to HBO. Eventually you believed in me. I’m back on your network and I’m happy about it. Like Sinatra said, ‘If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere,” Wladimir said. “[It’s the] Right event, right venue and right city. I fought here for the first time 15 years ago and I’m so happy to come back here and fight.”
Let’s hope Wladimir fights better than he did the last time he was in New York, because he fought a poor fight against Ibragimov. That was not impressive stuff from Wladimir in that fight. He played it too safe the New York crowd ended up booing him something fierce.
Jennings has the reach, jab and combinations to give Wladimir a lot of problems in this fight. If Jennings can hang around long enough to land his shots, he’s going to give Wladimir a lot of problems and maybe score a knockout.
Jennings has 10 knockouts on his resume, so he’s got some pop in his punches. He can bust Wladimir up with his shots if he lands enough of them. Further, Jennings has a longer reach than Wladimir by one inch despite being three inches shorter than him at 6’3”.
This means that he’s going to be able to connect with shots against Wladimir even when the Ukrainian is on the outside thinking he’s safe from getting hit.
This is a warm-up fight for Wladimir to get him ready for his likely fight against Tyson Fury later this year. That’s a big fight that will give both guys a big payday. But I’m not sure that Wladimir will get to the fight with his titles still in his possession.
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