Wladimir Klitschko vs. Bryant Jennings, Pre-Fight Take

The fight is scheduled for 25th April, about a month from now. It will take place in Madison Square Garden, New York, USA. Klitschko's undisputed heavyweight crown will be on the line.

Profiles

Wladimir Klitschko
Record: 63 wins (53 KO), 3 losses
Age: 39
Height: 198cm (6′ 6&#8243
Reach: 206cm (81&#8243
Weight: 111.5 kg (245.8 lbs) last fight weight

Bryant Jennings
Record: 19 wins (10 KO), no losses
Age: 30
Height: 194cm (6′ 3&#8243
Reach: 213cm (84&#8243
Weight: 100.9 kg (222.6 lbs) last fight weight

Background

Wladimir Klitschko is coming off an impressive victory over the mandatory challenger and at the time rated #1 contender in the world Kubrat Pulev. Pulev was viewed by most of the boxing critics as a legitimate threat to Klitschko's throne, but ultimately came up short, suffering 3 knockdowns before getting knocked out by Klitschko in the 5th round. Klitschko's next step was chasing the WBC belt, but was unable to get that unification due to the boxing politics. Ultimately, it was decided that the next fight would be Klitschko's return in the United States and Jennings was selected as the opponent.

Bryant Jennings has had a successful last year as well. He took on two undefeated opponents. One was the Polish prospect Arthur Szpilka, where Jennings managed to secure a stoppage victory, while the other one was the highly rated Cuban contender Mike Perez. After a tough and close fight, Jennings earned a split decision victory and became the mandatory challenger for the WBC title. However, due to the opportunity presented to to him by Klitschko, Jennings decided to abandon his mandatory WBC status and accept to challenge the heavyweight king.

Amateur experience

As far as the amateur experience is concerned, it hugely favors Wladimir Klitschko. After having a decorated amateur career, highlighted by winning the Olympic gold in Atlanta '96, Klitschko turned pro shortly after the Olympic games.

On the other hard, Jennings has almost non existent amateur experience, having started boxing late and not having any amateur pedigree. To his credit, he is a fast learner and the progress he made in such a short period of time is huge.

Styles

Having basically perfected his safety-first approach, Klitschko obviously likes to fight from the outside, using his long and precise jab and keeping the distance. He also has great power in either hand, which is always a factor that makes his opponents be careful as well, which usually allows Wladimir to dictate the pace of the fight. Unlike his brother Vitali, Wladimir doesn't like to fight on the back foot, therefore he always prefers to clinch when the opponent is too close instead of taking a backwards step. That style is usually frustrating the opponents, especially those with the significant height disadvantage, as it throws them out of their game with Klitschko being very hard to hit. As the opponent eventually gets tired in that kind of a game, it doesn't take much for Klitschko until he launches one of his heavy shots and ends the fight.

Jennings prefers different kind of a game. He has a huge reach of 213cm (which even exceeds the reach of Wladimir), which he utilizes on fairly well against the opponents with shorter arms. His solid jab is always bothering his opponents, and Jennings is always ready to mix it up as well. Although not being much of a knockout artist, Jennings is not afraid to enter into the exchange. Also, he has no problem fighting on the inside either, which makes his game fairly well rounded.

Strengths and weaknesses

Klitschko is a very smart and intelligent boxer. He utilizes on his physical advantages as much as possible and has an extremely good and precise jab. Being a master distance keeper, in combination with his size and reach, those things alone pose a lot of problems for almost everybody. Among the stuff he also brings to the table, is his signature right hand which is very powerful and has ended many of his rivals. His right hook is also an extremely dangerous weapon (most recently demonstrated against Pulev), and with him having great power in either hand, virtually all of his shots bring much concern to any opponent. While clinching, Klitschko uses every chance to lean on the opponent in order to eventually make him tired as the fight progresses.
As for the weaknesses, Wladimir is not very comfortable while going backwards, thus he almost always uses the clinch. Also, he has shown signs of slowing down, and speed might as well pose him a problem. Even the jab, one of his signature punches, isn't as good as it was about 5 years ago. It is still very good, but there is a chance a good jabber could find some success there, or at least bother him here or there (for example Pulev's jab bothered him a couple of times). It shouldn't be forgotten that Klitschko is now 39 years old and not exactly what he used to be, therefore there's always a chance that his age might be that X factor in the opponent's favor.

Jennings is a fighter whose reach has brought problems to everybody he's faced so far. He utilizes on his jab, and given the opportunity, he even goes on to close the show. Like Klitschko, Jennings is also in a supreme physical condition and possesses a lot of athletic ability himself. What he doesn't possess in a huge amount of experience, especially on this level. Being a fast learner that he is, it is to be expected that he learned much from his recent fights against Szpilka and Perez. However, he hasn't yet faced a tall, rangy distance keeper, much less a guy with so many assets like Klitschko. There's hardly a question about Jennings' will and determination, which is on a very high level, but considering the problems he had in the Perez fight, even in some moments against Szpilka, there's a big question whether he is able to deal with an accurate outside boxer or not. He is young, strong and he is at his best, but does he have a quality to deal with the champion, that is the question. Jennings does have more than just one dimension to his game, and whether strategy he decides to came up with in this fight, remains to be seen.

Outcome

Considering the styles, it is to be expected to see Klitschko starting off with his usual game, possibly grabbing Jennings early on to establish his pace and feel out the opponent. How will Jennings start off is not easy to tell, but he could probably be looking to cut the distance if it turns out that his superior reach is not enough against Klitschko's jab and distance control. If the fight turned out to be that way, it's to be expected from Jennings to just try to go for it sooner or later. Will that make him or break him? We never know for sure, but the odds are against him and Klitschko is rightfully the favorite.

Feel free to present your own opinions and expectations.

 

How come you read the whole text and managed to reply that fast? :blood

 

Somebody keep the tally.

 

Joseph Parker, Umar Salamov, Izuagbe Ugonoh and Yago Kiladze are among Klitschko's sparring partners for the Jennings fight.