(Photo Credit: Ed Mulholland/HBO) By Dan Ambrose: In one of HBO’s better cards in 2015, heavyweights Bryant Jennings (19-1, 10 KOs) and Luis “The Real King Kong” Ortiz (23-0, 20 KOs) will be going at it tonight at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, New York.
The Ortiz vs. Jennings card is absolutely stacked with high caliber fighters from top to bottom, and almost any of the undercard fights could work as a main event as a substitute for the Ortiz-Jennings fight.
Ortiz and Jennings will be a great fight to end the card with, but this fight might not be even remotely the most exciting fight on the night. If the hard-hitting southpaw Ortiz fights as well as he has been fighting in his previous 23 bouts as a pro, we could see the 31-year-old Jennings dispatched quickly. The boxing media believe that Jennings has a chance of tripping the 36-year-old Ortiz up in this fight due to Jennings giving former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBA heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko a ton of problems in their fight last April.
However, the 39-year-old Klitschko that Jennings battled earlier this year was not the prime version of Klitschko that we had seen in the distant past. Jennings fought an old and depleted Klitschko, who could no longer pull the trigger on his punches at this point in his career. Ortiz is the complete opposite of Klitschko.
Ortiz is more than capable of throwing many punches, and he has excellent punching power that he is not afraid to use. If Jennings is counting on Ortiz not letting his hands go like Wladimir, then he could be in for a world of hurt tonight when “The Real King Kong” Ortiz starts bombing him from the opening bell with hard left hands and right hooks to the head.
Ortiz can punch with huge power with either hand, and Jennings is going to need a good chin and some stiff offense of his own if he wants to survive the early rounds of this fight.
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In another interesting fight, former WBA featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (24-1, 17 KOs) will be taking his impressive record into the ring against a very good fighter in Hylon Williams Jr. (16-1-1, 3 KOs) in a fight that promises a lot action. Gamboa has not fought in over a year, and he is now in his early 30s, and perhaps has lost a step or two from age and inactivity.
Gamboa will be turning 34 on December 23, and he does not have much more time remaining on the clock before he needs to start considering retirement. Williams Jr. is only 25-years-old and he has the boxing skills to give Gamboa problems if he can take the fight past the fifth round. Gamboa used to be a good fighter that could go 10 to 12 hard rounds without tiring, but he is not the same fighter that he was before.
Terence Crawford stopped Gamboa in the ninth round last year. Other fighters have been able to show Gamboa’s stamina problems, but without doing enough to get the win. Williams Jr. fought to an eight round draw against Jason Litzau in his last fight in August. Williams Jr. appeared to do enough to deserve the win, but the popular Litzau received a controversial draw. The only blemish on William’s resume is an eight round decision loss to Rances Barthelemy in 2012.
This is going to be a tough fight potentially for Gamboa to win because of his age and his inactivity. Gamboa is fortunate that Williams is not a big puncher, because this could be a real nightmare for him if he had to fight a lightweight with knockout punching power like Ismael Barroso, the interim WBA lightweight champion. Barroso is a punching machine with KO power in either hand.
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In what is potentially the best fight on the card, #7 WBO, #8 WBC, #11 IBF light heavyweight contender Yunieski Gonzalez (16-1, 11 KOs) will be fighting unbeaten Ukrainian Vyacheslav Shabranskyy (14-0 12 KOs) in a 10 round fight. Gonzalez, 30, lost his last fight to former WBC 175lb champion Jean Pascal last July in a fight that Gonzalez appeared to win. Pascal won by a 10 round decision, but it was not a popular decision with the Mandalay Bay crowd in Las Vegas, as they booed loudly the results, and felt that Gonzalez had done enough to deserve the win.
Pascal chose not to give Gonzalez a rematch to clear up the controversy. Shabranskyy and Gonzalez both can punch with a lot of power, and this should be an interesting fight to see which of the two folds. Gonzalez was hurt on a couple of occasions by the big punches from Pascal, but he still got the better of the action in almost every round. Shabranskyy has not fought anyone in Gonzalez’s lass during his shot career, so it’s going to be a big step up for him in this fight.
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Former IBF welterweight champion Joshua Clottey (39-4, 22 KOs) will be looking to put himself in position for a title shot in his fight against the younger, stronger and bigger Gabriel Rosado (21-9, 13 KOs) in a 10 round bout. If the 5’8” Clottey is going to win this fight, then he is going to need to use his hand speed and many combinations to get the job done.
In the past, Clottey’s ability to throw fast combinations has helped him in fights against guys like Anthony Mundine, Diego Corrales, and Antonio Margarito. Never the less, Rosado is younger and he is going to have a considerable size advantage in this fight.
Clottey, 38, is nearing 40 and possibly vulnerable if Rosado puts the heat on him and keeps it on for any length of time. Just the size difference could be a problem for Clottey, because he is more of a welterweight fighting a boiled down junior middleweight.
Clottey last fought in May in defeating Jorge Silva by a 10 round decision. That was Clottey’s only fight this year. He looked good in that fight, but he wasn’t fighting a guy with the same talent or size as Rosado.
Rosado has had it tough in the last two years in losing to Gennady Golovkin, Peter Quillin and David Lemieux. He’s still a very good fighter, but he’s just been matched very tough in repeated fights without being given a break to fight lesser competition in confidence builder type fights.
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In the co-feature bout, former WBA featherweight champion Nicholas Walters (26-0, 21 KOs) will be fighting Jason Sosa (18-1-3, 14 KOs) in a 10 round scrap. Sosa is a slugger with a lot of punching power and a high-pressure style of fighting. He’s going to take the fight to Walters and look to punch with him. Walters will still likely have the weight advantage over Sosa, and that could factor in to him winning the fight. Walters is arguably a lightweight, who drains down to fighting in the featherweight division.
In his last fight, Walters rehydrated to 145lbs for his fight against Miguel Marriaga last June. Walters weighed as much as lightweight Felix Verdejo did after he rehydrated for his fight on the same card. Some boxing fans attribute Walters’ success at featherweight with him being a guy who is fighting outside of his natural weight class. They feel that Walters is really a lightweight, who drains down to gain an advantage over lighter fighters than himself at featherweight and super featherweight. It’s hard to argue with that belief.
If Verdejo drained down to featherweight, he would be a terror after rehydrating to 145. It would be near impossible for fighters like Vasyl Lomachenko to deal with the size and punching power of Verdejo. Walters will be back down to the featherweight division in the near future, possibly in a fight against WBO featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko.
Walters has recently wins over Marriaga, Nonito Donaire and Vic Darchinyan. Those guys never stood a chance due to Walters’ size advantage over them.
I would not mind seeing Walters fight guys his own size like Verdejo rather than seeing him boil down in weight to fight lighter guys like himself. I do not think Walters would do well against top lightweights that came into the fights at the same weight as him. I think he would win some fights but lose others. I definitely don’t think he would be the same dominating force as he’s been recently in his fights at featherweight. Verdejo is a dominating force with one-punch power, and I think Walters would have many problems with his shots.
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