By Michael Lieberman: Oh, I hate to gloat over this but I knew Michael Jennings (34-2, 16 KOs) was going to get his backside handed to him the moment this fight was signed for. Maybe it would have been a good fight if Miguel Cotto (33-1, 27 KOs) was fighting with a handicap, let’s say with injury or two slowing him down, but that would have been the only way this would have been a competitive fight.
The 31-year-old Jennings was running for his life every minute of the fight, and stinking out Madison Square Garden. Thankfully, Cotto put Jennings out of his misery in the 5th after knocking him flat. The fight was then stopped by referee Benjy Esteves Jr. at the 2:38 mark.
Jennings was about the worst looking welterweight title challenger I can recall seeing in years, and after watching him sprint around the ring for five rounds, I wonder how or why he was ever ranked in the top #5 in the WBO. Cotto knocked Jennings down twice in the 4th with hard body shots, this after having chased him around for the three previous rounds.
The fight was a stinker up until then because of Jennings terrified manner of fighting. I saw no strategy to Jennings’ game plan, just plain flight from battle. I don’t know how Jennings could have wasted so much time traveling all the way from England to fight in such a poor manner, because he fought terribly, much worse than I expected.
I’m not surprised, mind you, but it was stunning in how terrible Jennings looked. I just hope he never gets another shot at a major title again, because he wasted my time in watching him. He’s much better off fighting for one of the obscure English titles that no one has ever heard of.
Jennings ran for his life in the 1st round, sprinting around the ring like he had lost his senses. He changed direction, bounced and looked for all practical purposes like a person that was in a panicked state. I felt sorry for the guy because he was melting down without even having been hit.
I hoped he would loosen up after some time and quit fighting as if he had something stuck up his backside. Unfortunately he didn’t. Cotto landed the only significant blow in the 1st round, a hard left hook to the body that straightened Jennings up while in mid flight. Jennings jabbed a lot but war short arming his jabs, missing several inches short of the target, probably too afraid to want to get hit by Cotto.
Cotto tracked Jennings in the 2nd, intercepting him while he was running and making him pay by nailing him with nice hooks. Jennings kept on running without purpose, not throwing any shots and just running as if he were hoping to be able to run for the full 12 without being knocked out.
I don’t know about you, but I hate fighters that employ this tactic. You know they have chance of winning using that style, and they probably know as well, yet they continue to fight like this and waste their time and people’s money by giving the fight away without facing down their opponent.
In the 3rd, Jennings was still just running and doing absolutely nothing to show that he was there to win the fight. Cotto caught him with a hard right hand, busting him in the nose and causing him to bleed heavily from his nose. Jennings would continue running, dabbing at his nose while doing so and looking horrible.
At this point, the fight was all Cotto and Jennings was turning out to be a crummy opponent. There was still a chance that Jennings would show something to the American audience, but it looked more and more that he had travelled all this way just run and not fight.
In the 4th, Cotto, now officially sick of Jennings’ running about the ring, stepped in front of him blocking his track field and blasted him with a hard left to the head, hurting Jennings. Cotto shuffled after Jennings as he went into full retreat. Cotto then caught his wounded prey and landed a nice left hook to the midsection, knocking Jennings down.
Jennings was only up for long enough to catch four punches from Cotto before Jennings once again visited the canvas courtesy of another big left hook to the body from Cotto. By this time, I was fully expecting the white towel of mercy to be thrown in by Jennings’ corner signaling that they want the fight to be stopped. They didn’t, and Jennings continued being backed up around the ring and taking a lot of head shots for the remainder of the round.
In the 5th, Cotto waited for an opening, not even really showing much concern about wanting to end the fight. Probably because he knew that he could take the harmless Jennings out at any time he wanted with a shot, so he merely waited for Jennings to sprint by him while circling the ring in his typical fashion.
The moment of truth arrived two minutes into the round when Cotto hurt Jennings with a hard left hand to the head. Jennings staggered back into the ropes where he was dropped by a right hand from Cotto. Referee Benjy Esteves Jr. then took one look at Jennings and waived the fight off at 2:38 of the round.
It was good win for Cotto, but it’s hard to give him full credit for the victory and consider him back from his July defeat at the hands of Antonio Margarito, mainly because how awful Jennings was. This was a fight equivalent of taking on a 3d tier fighter and nothing like what you would assume that you would get when you have two fighters with good records facing off for a vacant WBO welterweight title on the line.
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