Wladimir Klitschko focused on Bryant Jennings, not interested in Wilder or Fury now

By Boxing News - 04/22/2015 - Comments

YouTube video

By Scott Gilfoid: Despite two huge fights being on the horizon against unbeaten WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (33-0, 32 KOs) and Britain’s Tyson Fury (24-0, 18 KOs), IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (63-3, 53 KOs) is totally focused on his fight this Saturday night on HBO Championship Boxing against America’s Bryant Jennings (19-0, 10 KOs) at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Wladimir doesn’t have to fight the talented 6’7” Wilder because they are in different lanes right now holding different titles, but Wladimir will need to make a decision in the near future about whether he wants to face the 6’9” Fury because he’s his World Boxing Organization (WBO) mandatory challenger.

There’s no way of getting around that fight until the 6’6” Wladimir chooses to vacate or have the WBO strip him of his title. Somehow I don’t think Wladimir is going to take either of those routes because he’s on a mission to collect all of the world titles at heavyweight. He’s three and the only strap that is eluding his grasp is the one currently held by Deontay with him holding down the WBC title.

“We’re going to concentrate on Fury in the future, but right now we’re concentrating on Bryant Jennings,” Wladimir said via Behindthegloves.com. “Without a win over Jennings nothing is going to happen.”

In looking at how Wladimir performed in his last fight against Kubrat Pulev last November, I can see the 6’3” Jennings giving Wladimir a whole lot of trouble on Saturday night. Jennings does have the reach, the power, speed and the overall talent to get the job done against the 39-year-old Wladimir, as long as he can defend against the occasional big shots that Wladimir will be hitting him with. Pulev was able to nail Wladimir with some decent punches that snapped his head back and really got his attention.

Pulev’s problem was that he didn’t connect with enough shots to get the win. I mean, I think Pulev would have won the fight if he had been able to let his hand go a little more and stay out of the way of Wladimir’s big shots.

If Wladimir is able to get past Jennings on Saturday, then I can definitely see Wladimir struggling against the likes of Fury and Wilder. Both of those guys are taller than Wladimir, and likely dent his chin with one of their shots. To be sure, Fury can’t punch but he doesn’t need to have to punch for him to get a win over Wladimir. All he needs to do is make sure he nails him enough times to tip him over on the canvas.

Wilder is obviously the biggest threat to Wladimir in the division right now. With his long reach, lightning fast hand speed and his one-punch power, Wilder would be a severe risk to Wladimir as long as the fight lasted. Deontay’s power is so good that even if he doesn’t connect cleanly with one of his big shots, he could get Wladimir in trouble ad finish him off. At the end of the day I don’t see Wladimir taking the fight with Deontay. The reason is because Deontay is like another Corrie Sanders, only taller.

The difference I can see between Wilder and Sanders is that Sanders was a southpaw whereas Deontay fights out of the orthodox stance when he fights. However, Deontay can switch to the southpaw stance and be just as effectively as the best southpaws in the division. He’s comfortable with either stance. We already saw what Sanders did to Wladimir in their fight in 2003. Sanders knocked Wladimir down three times before stopping him in the 2nd round. Wladimir never attempted to avenge the loss to Sanders.



Comments are closed.