By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is planning on putting together a fight between Bryant Jennings and WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker (23-0, 18 KOs) in the spring of 2018, if Jennings 19-2, 10 KOs) wins his next fight against 2nd tier guy Daniel Martz (15-4-1, 12 KOs) on August 19 and one more fight after that in November or December. Parker-Jennings would be an in house Top Rank fight, as the 87-year-old Arum co-promotes Parker.
Parker must win his next title defense against Hughie Fury (20-0, 10 KOs) on September 23 for the possibility of Jennings getting a world title shot. Hughie is not one of Top Rank’s fighters, so that would make it very unlikely that Jennings would be able to get a title shot against him in one of his voluntary defenses. If Hughie wins the WBO title, does Top Rank keep Jennings as part of their stable or do they cut him adrift due to the title shot against Parker no longer being a possibility. Arum could still put Jennings in with Parker for a regular fight, but I don’t know much interest there would be from the U.S and New Zealand boxing public in such a fight.
Jennings will be fighting this month against Martz on the undercard of the Terence “Bud” Crawford vs. Julius Indongo card on August 19 at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska. The Jennings vs. Martz fight will not be televised as part of the ESPN card, but it will be streamed by the network. It’s unclear how much interest there will be from boxing fans at seeing the 6’3” Jennings fighting a journeyman. Martz, 26, has lost 3 out of his last 6 fights in defeats to Alexis Santos, Joseph Parker and Grover Young (11-15-1).
Jennings, 32, is a former heavyweight world title challenger who hasn’t fought in over 2 years since his 7th round TKO defeat to Luis “King Kong” Ortiz on December 19, 2015. Before that, Jennings was easily beaten by heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision on April 25, 2015.
If all Jennings has to do is win 2 fights to get a world title shot against Parker, it’s not going to look good in the eyes of boxing fans. With Jennings having his last 2 fights and been out of the ring for 2 solid years, he’s not someone that deserves a world title shot. Unless Arum plans on putting Jennings in against a solid contender in November or December, it’s going to look bad for him to be fighting for a world title against Parker in 2018. It’ll just look like an undeserving heavyweight getting a title shot just because he’s with the same promoter as Parker.
“And then if all goes well in that fight, we will try to make a world title fight for him,” Arum said to ESPN.com “I’ll try to make Joseph Parker against Jennings on ESPN in the United States next spring.”
It would be nice if Top Rank made the Parker-Jennings fight look credible by having Jennings face at least 1 good heavyweight to earn the title shot against Parker. If Jennings is just given a title shot after beating 2 poor fodder opponents, it’s going to look wrong in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans. Top Rank should at least have Jennings fight someone like Dereck Chisora, Dillian Whyte, Jarrell Miller or Dominic Breazeale to earn the title shot against Parker. Do I see that happening? No, I don’t. If Jennings does face a contender, it’ll be a non-threat like Gerald Washington, Christian Hammer, Johann Duhaupas or Charles Martin. I’m not even sure if Jennings can beat those guys. Top Rank might need to go even lower than those fighters in the rankings. I personally like the idea of a promotional company signing someone just to get them a quick title shot against a champion that they promote. I’m an old school boxing fan. I think fighters should have to earn title shots rather than have them given to them because they share the same promoter. If Top Rank is going to keep Jennings on board with their company after he loses to Parker next year, then I can respect that. But if this is just a move for short term gain by salvaging Jennings long enough for one quick payday and then casting him adrift, it’ll look bad.
Jennings’ chances of beating Parker are slim. Jennings is more of a finesse type of heavyweight, who needs to land a lot of shots for him to score knockouts. Parker will likely have too much power for Jennings when/if that fight takes place.
Jennings will need to get through his fight against Martz without injuries for him to fight in November or December. That’s the plan. Before losing back to back fights in his last two matches, Jennings would likely have handled a 2nd tier fighter like Martz with no problems. I’m not sure if he can handle him now though. He’s been out of the ring for 2 years, and he likely won’t be at the same level he was at before his long layoff.
It’s unclear how many fights Top Rank has signed Jennings for. Will they dump him after he fights Parker for the title and loses or will they stick with him? I’d be surprised if Jennings is still with Top Rank after 2018. If Jennings gets trounced by Parker next spring, it’s likely going to be much harder for Top Rank to get Jennings another world title shot. Jennings would likely have to earn a title shot if he wants to fight for a third time against a world champion. Of course, Top Rank can keep putting Jennings in with Parker repeatedly, but somehow, I can’t see that happening unless something unforeseen happens like Jennings beating Parker.
I think this is just a one and done quick payday fight for Top Rank. Heavyweight champions like Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua aren’t likely going to show interest in fighting Jennings after he loses to Parker next year. For Jennings to keep getting world title shots, he’s going to probably need to work his way to the No.1 spot to make that happen. It could take years for that to happen, and I don’t know if he’s got the youth and talent to make that happen. Will Top Rank keep Jennings on their roster long enough for that to happen? I doubt it. That’s why I see Jennings vs. Parker as a ‘one and done’ type affair for Jennings as far as him being with Top Rank. If Parker can hold onto his World Boxing Organization title for a couple of years, it makes it possible for Arum to feed other Top Rank heavyweights to him. Arum will need to keep signing heavyweights to put in the ring with him. Ideally, it would be better for Top Rank to sign a quality heavyweight that has the kind of talent that would enable him to beat Parker or whoever ends up with the WBO belt, but it’s not easy to do. Top Rank would need to stay on top of the workings of the amateur boxing world, and quickly sign the talented heavyweights once they start looking to turn pro. Top Rank would have done well if they had inked heavyweights Daniel Dubois, Joe Joyce or Tony Yoka. Those are all fighters that figure to make an impact in the heavyweight division before long.