By Chris Williams: Although former World Boxing Association welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (32-1, 26 KOs) might much prefer to go right into a title fight against WBO champion Paul Williams, unfortunately Cotto will have to take a brief detour along the way with a WBO title eliminator match against #2 ranked Michael Jennings (34-1, 16 KOs) on February 14th in New York. Jennings, 31, from Britain, has fought the entirety of his career in the UK against mostly obscure, lowly ranked fighters.
Michael Jennings
Jennings Outclasses Ungiadze
By Tony Krebs: WBU welterweight champion Michael Jennings (33-1, 16 KOs) defeated Geoge Ungiadze (12-6, 4 KOs) by a 7th round TKO of a scheduled 8-round non-title bout on Saturday night at the Bolton Arena, Bolton, in Lancashire. The fight, never close to begin with, ended with a flurry of punches in the 7th round as Jennings drilled the defenseless Ungiadze with combinations leading to the referee Phil Edwards stepping in and halting the bout.
Jennings, 30, took the fight as a stay-busy fight, and it turned out to be a one-sided mismatch as the 24 year-old republic of Georgia native Ungiadze had no chance to begin with, having lost four out of his last five fights going into the bout. Jennings for all practical had the fight won going into the bout because Ungiadze was largely an unskilled fighter with almost zero power.
Jennings KOs Minter
By John Dower: World Boxing Union welterweight champion Michael Jennings (32-1, 15 KOs) stopped challenger Ross Minter (17-3-1, 8 KOs) in the 9th round tonight at the Excel Arena, in London. Jennings, rated #3 in the WBO, made a mess up Minter’s face early on, cutting him above the left eye and ear with excellent shots. Minter, like his famous father former champion Alan Minter, Ross seemed to inherit the same tendency to cut up under punishment. However, it hardly mattered, though, for Minter wasn’t in the same class as Jennings, which was made clear round after round as Jennings pounded away unmercifully at Minter.
The end came at the closing of the ninth round, when Minter’s corner tossed in the white towel, signaling that they wanted the fight to be stopped for their fighter. The referee Mickey Vann then obliged, stopping the fight at 2:59 of the 9th round. Minter was hurt in the first round, when he ran into a right hand from Jennings. However, Minter recovered quickly, and continued on not much worse for wear.