At this point a year ago, Philly boxer Bryant Jennings was working five days a week as a maintenance man at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The 30-year old is moving on to bigger projects – quite literally – when he faces Wladimir Klitschko at Madison Square Garden for the world heavyweight championship before what is anticipated to be a sellout crowd.
It’s a rarity in boxing to see world champions who laced on the gloves later in their lives, but Bryant Jennings, 30, is looking to join a prestigious list – a very small list – of fighters who have won world titles at what most people would consider an old age in boxing. Argentina’s Sergio Martinez was 33 when he stopped Alex Bunema in 2008 to win the Interim WBC light-middleweight title and iconic boxer Rocky Marciano had recently turned 29 years of age before he knocked out Jersey Joe Walcott in the first of two fights in September 1952.
Speaking with The Guardian, Jennings, an athlete at Benjamin Franklin High School, walked into the ABC Recreation Center in 2009 and from his first session on the heavy bag, he realized what his dream was all along.
“Since then we knew this was for me. I felt it,” said Jennings. “There was no turning back because I was good; I was that good, just imagine what it would have been like if I’d been doing it all along.”
Less than a month later, he was fighting in his first amateur fight. After 16 more of those, he turned professional.
In 2014, Jennings continued to move up the heavyweight rankings with a couple of HBO-televised victories against unbeaten contenders in Artur Azpilka and a split-decision win over Mike Perez, which earned him a mandatory shot at WBC titleholder Deontay Wilder, but passed on the opportunity for a big money fight against Wladimir Klitschko. In August, he resigned from his position at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
His family and friends know him as being very convivial, but that method will have to hit the landfill – for now – as Klitschko holds advantages in just about every category, including height, weight, reach, experience, and power.
When Klitschko won Olympic Gold in 1996, Jennings was in grade school. In addition, Klitschko has more title defenses (17) than Jennings has professional fights. His nine-year reign is second only to Joe Louis, who had 25 successful title defenses.
While Klitschko is approaching 40 years of age, he obliterated Kubrat Pulev – who had been regarded as the No. 1 threat to Klitschko’s throne – in five terribly one-sided rounds. Although Klitschko only connected on 38 punches, Pulev hit the canvas four times, with a brutal left hook being the nail to the coffin.
Although his goal is to extirpate Klitschko on Saturday, Jennings has nothing but respect for the living legend.
“I admire his dedication; his clean living and stuff like that. He’s a very focused fighter,” Jennings stated.
The game plan for Jennings: land some and get out of the pocket immediately. However, it’s easier said than done. Klitschko has an incredible jab, but Jennings is a solid defender and moves very well. He may have to make it a boring fight to have a chance at winning, but if he gets hit with anything of substance from the lengthy Ukrainian, he may have to take a page out of the Kevin Johnson playbook.
Johnson, a former heavyweight contender, played that strategy against Wladimir’s older brother Vitali, who landed 298 punches on him, but failed to knock him out. I don’t think we will see a knockout in this scenario. In an uninspiring fight, Klitschko wins by unanimous decision.
