By Scott Gilfoid: A fight between WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs) and former world title challenger Bryant Jennings (19-1, 10 KOs) is rumored to be taking place on January 9th next year.
Jennings, 31, gave strength to the rumor when commenting on his Instagram today that the talented Wilder will be losing his title on January 9th. Jennings, #5 WBC, #6 WBA, #9 IBF, is coming off of a 12 round unanimous decision defeat to IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko last April at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Jennings gave a good account of himself despite losing the fight by the scores of 118-109, 116-111 and 116-111.
“byjennings😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 Skills is elementary! Work on them feet champ they flying all over the place. #Jan9th the day you got it The day you’ll lose it. @bronzebomber,” Jennings said on his Instagram.
Wilder, 6’7”, is supposed to be waiting for his mandatory title defense against his #1 WBC challenger Alexander Povetkin. Wilder has already exhausted his two voluntary defenses that the World Boxing Council gives their champions. However, Povetkin isn’t ready to fight right now because he’s got a fight on November 4th against the 6’8” Mariusz Wach in Russia, and he’ll likely not be ready to fight Wilder until at least three to four months after that fight.
Wilder and manager Jay Deas don’t just want to sit around doing nothing for the next four to five months waiting for the 35-year-old Russian Povetkin to finally be ready to fight, so they want to get one more voluntary defense in before they face him.
It makes sense for Wilder to fight one more time rather than wait half a year before taking the Povetkin fight. As long as there’s no contract that has been completed that would forbid Wilder fighting, he’s free to take another voluntary defense, as long as the WBC gives him the green light to do so.
When you look at how long Floyd Mayweather Jr. was given by the WBC to hold onto his WBC junior middleweight title without defending it against his mandatory challenger, it makes sense that Wilder should be able to do the same. Mayweather won the WBC 154lb title from Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in September 2013, and he never defended that title in the two years that he held the belt.
Wilder recently defeated #11 WBC challenge Johann Duhaupas by an 11th round knockout last month on September 26th in Birmingham, Alabama. The fight was televised on Premier Boxing Champions on NBC, and a lot of fans watched it on free television. 3 million fans in the United States saw Wilder give Duhaupas a real beat down.
Showtime is said to be interested in seeing Wilder fight again this year or as soon as he can, and they’ll likely televise the fight. If Showtime doesn’t televise it, then you can bet that PBC will show it on NBC, CBS or ESPN. There’s too much interest in Wilder for them not to televise it. A fight between two talented Americans like Wilder and Jennings would bring in excellent ratings no matter what network it’s on.
It’s unclear why Jennings hasn’t fought since his loss to Wladimir. It’s been six months now since Jennings lost that fight, and it looks like he’s not going to fight again this year. If he does sign on for the Wilder fight in January, then it doesn’t matter that Jennings doesn’t fight again in 2015. Just as long as he’s ready to fight in early 2016, that’s all that matters.
Jennings, 6’3″, is four inches shorter than Wilder, but he’s got a one inch reach advantage over the champion. That’s hard to believe but it’s true. But what Jennings doesn’t have is Wilder’s punching power and hand speed. That’s going to make it really difficult to deal with Wilder in this fight, because he’s got so much power and he’s not afraid to use it.
Wladimir fought in a timid manner against Jennings, and seemed afraid to throw his right hand bombs and his left hooks. Wladimir fought a really boring conservative fight against Jennings. Wilder obviously won’t do that. He’ll be looking to take Jennings’ head off with left hooks and long rights. Jennings will need to be able to take a lot of huge shots for him to make it 12 rounds with a puncher like Wilder. I’m not sure that Jennings will be able to do that, but it’ll be interesting to see him try.
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