Jennings interview: One Big Shot

http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/12729987/land-one-big-shot

　
If there's one thing unbeaten heavyweight Bryant Jennings brings to the table in Saturday's shot at the world heavyweight championship it's confidence.
The Philadelphia native has been vocal about his belief that he will not only shock the world against long-reigning division king Wladimir Klitschko (63-3, 53 KOs) at New York's Madison Square Garden (HBO, 10 p.m. ET/PT), he will do so by knockout.
Jennings (19-0, 10 KOs), 30, recently caught up with ESPN.com to talk about his mindset entering the fight:

You have the biggest opportunity any fighter could want -- a shot at the heavyweight championship. What does this mean to you?
It means everything. It's the pinnacle of my ride. I have to stay focused and it's a wonderful feeling to be able to reach the top. But the greatest feeling is not just reaching it, the greatest feeling is accomplishing it and standing up there at the top with your hand raised.

How long have you pictured yourself in this moment with Klitschko as your opponent?
Pretty much since I started in 2009. Ever since I put the gloves on, that's who I have been focused on. I have seen nobody out there who could actually take him out and defeat him. So I have faith that he would be there until I get here.

What do you bring to this matchup that Klitschko hasn't seen in a long time, if not ever?
Maybe you can answer that question as well, but it's just youth, athleticism, heart and will. There's just something different. You can't actually compare me to the last few fighters that he fought. His greatest opponent within the last few years was Povetkin. But Povetkin wasn't as athletic. I think Povetkin was a very good opponent and he did a good job of trying. But there's some things that I could add that would be the difference between the best fighter that he has ever faced.

How far removed do you believe Klitschko is from his prime?
The game is so much in a bad state right now. It's real hard to even mention whether he's in his prime or not. I guess you could say he still is. He's definitely still winning. He didn't show no signs of really slowing down. So I guess you could still say he's in his prime but it's a real questionable division right now. He's holding it down, but he's just doing what he has to do. What else can I say?

How much extra significance does this fight taking place at a historic site like Madison Square Garden add for you?
I guess that will just be all a part of history. Going into the fight, I don't even really worry about where the fight is at, or things like that. I just focus on training and focus on winning the fight. Once the outcome is revealed, than the venue and all of that plays a part. But I don't really pay attention to stuff like that. Of course it's a great venue. It's one of the best venues in the world, if not the best, and it's one of the most famous. But the venue really doesn't matter because I'm in the ring and I'm fighting and this is what I have to be doing -- to execute. The venue really won't make a difference.

You have been quoted as saying you plan on knocking Klitschko out. What fuels your confidence?
I mean, s---, I'm just a confident person. There's nobody that can't break my confidence. I'm just a very confident person. What fuels is just life fuels it. In life, you have to be confident. I mean, f---, you want to live, right? You want to survive, right? You have to be confident. If you don't have any confidence than you can just be stepped on and ran all over so my confidence is natural confidence. When I'm doing anything, I have confidence regardless. I can break a leg and be able to still go in the boxing ring with confidence. S---, when I fought [Artur] Szpilka, I broke a hand during training camp. Throughout the whole training camp, I still had confidence. I don't care what the doctor said, I'm going to wrap this thing up and we are going to go in there and fight. And sure enough, I went through the whole eight-week training camp with a fractured hand and worked on just one hand. I didn't use the right hand damn near the whole camp. And I went in there and got the knockout.

Are you saying that after the Szpilka fight in New York, when the two of us were trapped in an elevator at the hotel with two other boxing writers, that you tore open the doors and escaped with a broken hand? That's manly right there.
[He laughs.] The hand was very much healed by the fight. But throughout the whole training camp, it was unusable. I definitely was training with just one hand. I had a cast on for weeks and when I went out to the public, I had to tell my hand doctor, 'Listen, I can't go out to the public with this cast on. I need something that is temporary.' So they went and made up something that I could put on and take off. I was giving people pounds instead of shaking hands. I was hiding the hand and I went the whole eight weeks like that. By the time the fight came, I had to deal with it. It hurt afterward, but the deal is that I had that same confidence with one hand going through a whole training camp.

And you rescued a group of boxing writers from being trapped in an elevator, which is always a bonus.
[Laughing.] Yes, yes I did.

Part of your journey getting to the Klitschko fight was your split-decision win over Mike Perez last July in a close, difficult fight. What did you learn from that performance that can help you moving forward?
Not really. I mean, I guess you could say we both got lucky. He got lucky with a not-so-good me that night and I got lucky with the best he can be because he never really expressed a great amount of conditioning in any of his fights anyway. But it was my will to win it that won me the fight. I wasn't 100 percent, but I was probably a little bit too over the top with the preparation. He should have definitely done more. The first few rounds that he was winning, he wasn't really doing nothing. He was just looking better and was more slick. But he didn't really look that good. He looked like s---. I looked at all of the highlight reels of our fight and he has not one highlight. He didn't really show me nothing. That was just a fight where I learned that I have to stay focused regardless of what's going on. Regardless of how I feel I have to keep going, keep trying and never give up.

Are you getting the respect you deserve as an unbeaten challenger in this fight?
No, I'm not. I'm definitely not. I guess you could say I could receive more, but I'm getting a lot of it from my peers and people that actually interact with me. I'm not going to get everybody to follow me and do everything that I want to do, but it's a great amount of people. It could be more. But after [Saturday] there's definitely going to be more. But I don't think I'm going to have the space for them. They will be swimming after the boat that already done took off. The bandwagon is full, baby.

For this fight to be a success, what has to go right above all else?
I have to land that big shot. That's what it is.