Klitschko decisions Jennings, looks poor

By Boxing News - 04/25/2015 - Comments

wlad85By Scott Gilfoid: In what was clearly a poor performance from the 39-year-old IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (64-3, 53 KOs) tonight, he had to struggle to defeat a much lighter and smaller American Bryant Jennings (19-1, 10 KOs) in winning a dull 12 round unanimous decision at Madison Square Garden.

Wladimir was constantly warned by the referee Michael Griffin for clinching until finally Griffin got tired of it and docked a point from Wladimir in the 10th. Griffin did Wladimir a huge favor by not taking off any additional points in rounds 11 and 12 because Wladimir was certainly still doing a great deal of holding even after losing a point.

The final judges’ scores were 116-111, 116-111 and 118-109.

Wladimir’s first warning for holding came in the 4th round, as referee Michael Griffin seemed visibly frustrated with Wladimir’s constant grabbing. Heck, Wladimir was holding without even throwing punches. He would just launch himself at Jennings and grab him. It was pretty blatant.

Jennings was able to land an occasional shot. He found most of his success in throwing to the body of Wladimir. He landed some decent body shots that got Wladimir’s attention early in the fight, but Jennings was still not able to throw enough body shots to do any real damage. The problem that Jennings had is that he only was able to throw to the body when Wladimir was clinching him, and he couldn’t get leverage on his shots because of Wladimir holding him.

This victory gives Wladimir his 18th successful title defense. He’s now within one of tying Larry holds for 2nd place for the most successful title defenses and within seven of tying Joe Louis for No.1 with 25 successful title defenses.

Jennings did a poor job of letting his hands go against a tired Wladimir tonight. With Wladimir throwing almost nothing but jabs, Jennings had a real chance of winning the fight if he’d simply put in some effort to throw some punches, but he just wouldn’t do it. It’s not surprising though because Jennings isn’t know for having great offensive skills or power. He’s just a guy that throws combinations, moves around well, and is good defending. His offense is very limited as we saw tonight.

In the 12th, Wladimir has his best round in nailing Jennings with a huge right hand to the head, and connecting with a good four-punch combination.

Wladimir rarely used his right and left hook in the fight. I thought that perhaps he injured both of them, but later on after the fight Wladimir said he was uncomfortable with the movement that Jennings was using and this made him not want to throw his power shots. What we got instead was a lot if jabbing from Wladimir. Even with his jabs, Wladimir was economical and not throwing nearly as many he should have been able to do.

The movement that Jennings used clearly threw Wladimir off, but he really didn’t move all that much. Jennings frequently was standing still directly in front of Wladimir with a high guard. But for some reason Wladimir wouldn’t launch his right hand or his left hook. Those shots would have pierced Jennings’ guard if Wladimir had thrown enough of him.

In between rounds, Wladimir’s trainer Johnathon Banks was constantly telling Wladimir to move and box instead of going after Jennings. Wladimir’s late trainer Emmanuel Steward likely would have been pressing Wladimir hard to not move and instead walk Jennings down and bomb him out with power shots. The difference between Bank’s training style and Steward’s was like night and day. I don’t think Banks was giving Wladimir the right advice for this fight and it caused him to waste a lot of energy and time by moving so much against a light hitter like Jennings.

In the 9th, Wladimir suffered a small cut under his left eye. He landed one big hand, but other than that it just jabs from Wladimir. Jennings wasn’t able to do anything because of his reluctance to let his hands go. This was a pattern that Jennings had the entire fight. He occasionally threw shots, but nearly enough to win the fight.

This performance showed that Wladimir is really starting to show his age. He no longer seems capable of throwing right hands and left hooks other than occasionally throwing them. If you compare this performance to how Wladimir used to fight earlier in his career, it’s night and day. He was capable of throwing a lot of punches per round when he was younger, and he was a lot faster. But now he just looks robotic and unable to pull the trigger on his shots. Based off this performance, I can see both Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder knocking Wladimir out. I would even add Anthony Joshua to the mix. I think all three of those guys are now better heavyweights than Wladimir.

Wladimir is going to need to think seriously about retiring from boxing before he gets beat. If he faces Deontay or even Fury, I think he’s going to lose to both of them. Those guys are capable of throwing a lot of punches. Fury can’t punch but he’s got a great work rate and he’d give Wladimir all kinds of problems. If Wladimir wants to cash out against Fury, then I see it as a good fight, but I don’t think it’s going to go well for Wladimir. He needs to retire in my view.

Jennings wasted his opportunity by not being busy enough. He looked like he really didn’t belong out there tonight. Yeah, he gave Wladimir some problems with his movement, but I think it was more of a case of Wladimir being old and no longer capable of letting his hands go like he was a few years ago. A younger version of Wladimir would have just totally destroyed Jennings tonight. It wouldn’t have been a fight. Even Wladimir starting out his career in his first year as a pro would obliterated Jennings tonight. He was so much better back then compared to how he fights now.

Other boxing results on the card:

Sadam Ali UD 10 Francisco Santana
Charles Martin TKO 1 Tom Dallas
Kenneth Sims Jr UD 6 Luis Rodriguez



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