It really wouldn’t be much of an upset if Perez wins, because Jennings hasn’t proven anything with the guys he’s beaten because none of them would have lasted against Perez either.
Jennings is pretty much the favorite because of how good he looked in teeing off on guys like Sergey Liakhovich, who he stopped in 9 rounds, Artur Szpilka, Chris Koval, Bowie Tupou, Steve Collins and Andrey Fedosov.
“This fight here is the fight to win in order to even think about the long wait or any other thing, and that Wilder and Stiverne fight,” Jennings said via ESPN’s Dan Rafael.
Jennings has the reach to potentially create problems for Perez in this fight if he doesn’t walk through his shots. But for Jennings to beat Perez, he’s going to need to let his hands go and throw a lot of shots.
Perez isn’t going to stop coming, but the more punches that Jennings throws, he can limit some of the damage that Perez is going to do to him in this fight. Perez hits harder and he’s got a great left hand that he likes to load up on.
Jennings can’t let him tee off on the inside the way he let Fedosov because Perez has much better power and skills than fighter. He won’t back off once he’s on the inside. Jennings will need to fight him off and try and keep him on the outside as much as possible to win.
On the inside, Jennings stands no chance of beating Perez because he lacks power and his arms are too long to get much on his shots at close range. Perez is able to throw a lot of impact when he’s crowding an opponent, and that’s something he’s going to be trying to do tonight.
Based on how Jennings looked in his last two fights against Andrey Fedosov and Artur Szpilka, he’s not going to win tonight against a guy like Perez. Jennings is going to need to raise his game considerably to beat Perez, because the Cuban fighter is a lot better than what we saw from Jennings in those fights.
Jennings took 9 rounds to stop Liakovich, the same fighter that Deontay Wilder knocked out in one round. The power is lacking from Jennings in a major way, and he’s not going to be able to get Perez out of there with his arm punches and combinations. He’s going to need a lot more than that tonight for him to get the job done, and it may be that he doesn’t have the game to get the job done. Perez is going to be on him the entire time tonight, nailing him with shots and making it tough for him. There’s too much on the line for Perez not to be at his best in this fight.
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