Klitschko defends against Jennings tonight on HBO

By Boxing News - 04/25/2015 - Comments

Wladimir Klitschko vs Bryant Jennings Weigh-in By Allan Fox: IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (63-3, 53 KOs) will be looking to make his 18th consecutive successful title defense tonight in his fight against the undefeated #2 WBA, #4 IBF, #4 WBO contender Bryant Jennings (19-0, 10 KOs) on HBO Championship Boxing from Madison Square Garden in New York.

The 6’6” Klitschko will be enjoying a 14.8 pound weight advantage as well as a three inch height advantage over the 6’3” Jennings. Interestingly enough, Jennings will have a three inch reach advantage over Wladimir tonight, and that could potentially play into his favor if he’s wise enough to stay on the outside and use his reach.

Jennings lacks punching power so he’s going to need to try and load up on something if he has any chance of winning. He’s probably not going to out-box the harder hitting Wladimir because he doesn’t have as good as jab as Wladimir. Unless Wladimir chooses not to use his jab, Jennings is going to have to go out there looking to score a knockout because his chances of winning a decision are slim.

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“I will make them eat their words at the press conference after the fight. Mark my words,” Klitschko said. “I don’t know how the fight with Jennings is going to be. I have prepared for everything. There are moments when I have to step in – and Pulev is a perfect example – where I have to put people in their place. In the division there is a lack of good opponents. I feel Jennings just got into our hands. Jennings is very good at what he’s doing. He knows his strong side and he’s putting an accent on it. I love to have the challenge in the ring, especially during the sparring sessions. Otherwise I get bored,” Klitschko said.

What Jennings doesn’t need to do is stand near enough to Wladimir for the big Ukrainian fighter to land his powerful left hooks. We saw how lethal that weapon is in his last fight against previously unbeaten Kubrat Pulev, who Wladimir was able to knock down three times in the fight.

Wladimir weighed in at 241.6 pounds compared to Jennings’ 226.8 pounds last Friday. It isn’t unusual for Wladimir to have a considerable size advantage over his opponents as he out-weighed Alexander Povetkin, Jean Marc Mormeck, David Haye, Eddie Chambers and Ruslan Chagaev by a considerable amount.

Also on the card is unbeaten welterweight contender Sadam Ali (21-0, 13 KOs) facing Francisco Santana (22-3-1, 11 KOs) in a scheduled 10 round bout. It should be an interesting affair because Ali has good punching power and excellent boxing skills. Santana will be looking to take the fight to him to see if he can pull off an upset.

“I think he deserves respect. He’s kind of a Rocky Balboa from Philadelphia,” Wladimir said. “So he’s living his dream and he’s now official contender for heavyweight titles. He’s getting a lot of attention. He’s obviously enjoying it. But as Emanuel Steward said, on Saturday night there going to be no team, there is going to be nobody else but him and me and that’s going to be ‘Welcome to big-time boxing!’”

Jennings is nothing like Balboa, but Wladimir obviously is comparing him in the sense that Balboa was a huge underdog in the move Rocky in his fight against Apollo Creed. But Rocky came on strong in the second half of the fight to give Creed a lot of problems. Jennings is a huge underdog in this fight against Wladimir and it would definitely be a big upset if he were to win.



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