By Scott Gilfoid: IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (63-3, 53 KOs) will be back inside the ring this Saturday, April 25th on HBO Championship Boxing against unbeaten American Bryant Jennings (19-0, 10 KOs) at Madison Square Garden in New York.
This is a real challenge for Wladmir because he’s facing a guy that hasn’t yet learned how to lose, and who believes in his mind that he’s got the talent to defeat the 38-year-old Ukrainian. Jennings, 30, has studied Wladimir’s fighting style, and he’s spotted a number of flaws in his game that he believes he can take advantage of on Saturday.
Jennings has a three inch reach advantage over Wladimir, which means it could make it awfully tough for Wladimir to out-land him when the two of them start throwing jabs at one another. In Wladimir’s last fight against the previously unbeaten Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev last November, Wladimir looked uncomfortable with Pulev’s long reach and his ability to nail Wladimir with punches even when he was on the outside. Against Jennings, Wladimir will be dealing with the same kind of reach problem that he did against the 6’4 ½” Pulev, and that could make things difficult for the Ukrainian fighter.
Wladimir says that he frequently only uses a portion of his game against his opponents. Why he does this is unclear, but it could have to do with him frequently facing guys that basically are totally over-matched from the get go such as Jean Marc Mormeck, Mariuz Wach, David Haye, Francesco Pianeta, Alex Leapai, Alexander Povetkin, Tony Thompson, Samuel Peter and Eddie Chambers. These guys are decent heavyweights, but not really good ones with the talent needed to really test Wladimir. For that reason it’s not surprising that Wladimir is saying that he only has to use a portion of his ability to beat his opponents. When you’re facing out-gunned guys 24/7, it’s obviously going to be easy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey52w1ZXNHA
“When I have a good quality preparation, and have no injuries, the no opponent has a change to beat me. Lucky punch against me is only possible if I sleep in the ring. To be honest, often I use only 20-30% of my abilities,” Wladimir said via sport.segodnya.ua.
Well, I expect Jennings to push Wladimir hard to get him to use more of his ability in their fight on Saturday. If Wladimir comes out there coasting on only 20-30% of his ability against a talent like Jennings, it could go badly for Wladimir. He’s no spring chicken now, and he’s facing a guy that has better reach, better hand speed, and with better ring movement than himself in facing Jennings.
Jennings has exposed other heavyweights in the past, and he could be the one to put Wladimir in his place and bring him back to the ground. I think Wladimir has gotten too big for his britches with the series of mismatches that he’s had over the years. Now that he’s finally facing a talented fighter in Jennings, we could see Wladimir once again beaten.
Jennings has recent wins over Mike Perez, Artur Szpilka and Andrey Fedosov. He’s really well prepared for this fight especially with his win over the Cuban Perez. If Wladimir comes out half-stepping like he claims he has, then I think we could see Jennings pull off a huge upset. But I won’t consider it an upset because Wladimir is an older fighter now, and he’s not fought anyone that I consider a good heavyweight since his fight against Corrie Sanders 12 years ago in 2003. Sanders destroyed Wladimir in just two rounds with his devastating attack, and Wladimir never faced him again.
Also on Saturday’s fight card is the following bouts:
Sadam Ali vs. Francisco Santana
Charles Martin vs. Tom Dallas
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