Jennings: I feel like I won the fight against Klitschko

By Boxing News - 04/27/2015 - Comments

jennings52By Scott Gilfoid: #2 WBA, #4 IBF, #4 WBO heavyweight contender Bryant Jennings (19-1, 10 KOs) feels he should have won the fight last Saturday night against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (64-3, 53 KOs) in their fight at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Jennings, despite his opinion that he won the fight, came up on the losing end of the judges’ scorecards with him losing by the scores of 116-111, 116-111 and 118-109.

“I really think I won the fight,” Jennings said via Behindthegloves. “If not, it was closer on the scorecards. That was by a wide margin. I’m like that’s ridiculous. I’m not bitter, I’m not upset. I’m good. There’s a lot of people on my radar.”

My view of the fight is that Jennings tried his best, but he didn’t have the size, speed, power or talent to defeat the 39-year-old Wladimir. Jennings could have done a better job than he did if he’d been willing to open up with his offense, throw some power shots, and take some risks, but he clearly was playing it safe for the 12 round fight.

Jennings fought like someone who was more concerned with surviving than in trying to win the fight, and that’s why he came up short. He didn’t look like he was willing to put it on the line by going after Wladimir the way he needed to for him to have had a chance of winning. The thing is if Jennings had gone all out in going after Wladimir’s fragile chin, he would have had a chance of winning because Wladimir looked horribly shot in that fight. The only thing good about Wladimir in the fight was his footwork. He showed that he can still move well, but that’s the extent of it.

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“My rise to the top is still on,” Jennings said at the post-fight press conference. “It’s still on and it don’t matter who it is. We’re not wasting no time. We’re going after the best. That’s what we do, and that’s what I’ve been doing my whole career. My whole short career. I think I went out there and did what I was supposed to do. And it’s magnified because my doing it was unexpected. So even in a loss, they should not praise me but they should be showing respect. According to what I’ve seen Klitschko do in the past, that jab didn’t set anything up. That wasn’t a dominant Klitschko jab. That was something else. That jab was not effective. So please, don’t say that. That still wasn’t my toughest fight. I swear to God, it wasn’t my toughest fight. What was? It was my 11th fight, when I fought on five days’ notice. We got the fight on Tuesday and the fight was on Saturday. It was against Maurice Byarm. I had to push myself to the limit. I was dead tired.”

One of the reasons that Wladimir’s jab wasn’t effective in the fight was because Jennings had his gloves up in front of his face the entire 12 round fight, as he wasn’t doing anything on offense. If you don’t try to land shots and merely hold your guard up to block shots, you’re going to block punches. That’s what Jennings did. He didn’t appear to be interested in winning, just blocking shots and surviving. As for Byarm, he hasn’t fought in three years since being knocked out in the 2nd round by Magomed Abdusalamov. It’s interesting that Jennings struggled so badly against Byarm, because that guy is someone who isn’t a major player in the heavyweight division. That suggests that Jennings isn’t as good as he thinks he is.

I can’t see Jennings going anywhere in the heavyweight division. I see him as Eddie Chambers 2.0. He’s a slightly taller version of Chambers, but arguably less skilled and not as good an offensive fighter. I don’t know where Jennings can go in the division. He’s too thin, too weak and too timid on offense. I think he needs to try and lose some muscle and drop down to cruiserweight because I can’t see him going anywhere in the heavyweight division against bigger guys like Tyson Fury, Wladimir and Deontay Wilder. Unless Jennings is good with being just a contender his entire pro career, I think he should drop down to cruiserweight if he can do that.



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