By William Mackay: Few people are giving welterweight Michael Jennings (34-1, 16 KOs) much of chance to beat Miguel Cotto (32-1, 26 KOs) on Saturday night, least of all most Americans, who overlook Jennings’ obvious skills and are predicting that he won’t see the 5th round. Whether people see it or not, this is something that can only make Jennings stronger. He has no pressure on him because no one expects anything from him other than to lose and lose badly.
That’s where Jennings, 31, has the opportunity to prove a lot of people wrong by pulling off a major upset and becoming the new Cinderella Man in boxing. There’s a lot at stake in this fight, with the vacant WBA welterweight crown open and for the taking. In addition, if Jennings can pull off the defeat, he may retire Cotto in the process.
Oh, I doubt Cotto would retire if he were to lose to Jennings, but if he loses to him it would be another serious blow for Cotto’s career and an indication that there are some lasting problems from the savage beating that he took against Antonio Margarito in July. It’s still too early to tell right now, but if Jennings takes Cotto out or stuns him once or twice, it’s probably a sign that Cotto is still feeling the repercussions from his fight with Margarito.
Jennings, ranked #3 in the WBO, is making a step up in competition in facing Cotto. Perhaps the best fighters he’s faced thus far are Ross Minter, Young Mutley, Gavin Down and Bradley Pryce. To be sure, all good fighters, but in being real, all of them are at least a level or more below Cotto in talent.
That could spell disaster for Jennings, because Cotto will not only hit much harder than any opponent that Jennings has faced so far, but he’ll also be throwing his punches with faster speed and showing much more skill that what Jennings has been accustomed to.
However, with the adrenalin of the moment, I expect Jennings to be fighting at a much higher level than he has for most of his career. He realizes what’s to be gained if he can pull off an upset. Not only will he be getting a huge amount of attention from the world wide boxing audience, but he’ll get a nice payday and can expect to continue to be paid much better than he has been for as long as he can hold onto the WBA welterweight title.
Jennings has said that he’s not afraid of Cotto and that he plans on using his experience to beat him. However, Jennings will be facing a hostile pro-Cotto audience because the fight is in New York, where Cotto has a large Puerto Rican fan base that will be showing up to cheer him on. Jennings will be making his first fight outside of the UK in his 10-year pro career.
Having been used to hearing mostly cheers from the audience, Jennings is going to have to try and shut out a lot of cheering for Cotto after every big punch that lands. That’s probably easier said than done, because a fighter can never say how they’ll react until they get in the situation and are faced with a large hostile audience booing much of everything they do.
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