Jennings back and raring to go
Michael Jennings has told BoxRec News that he remains as ambitious as ever despite appearing to have reached the summit of his career after his unsuccessful challenge to Miguel Cotto for the WBO welterweight crown at Madison Square Garden in New York last February.
Jennings has now fully recovered after damaging ligaments in the knuckle of his right hand during his points victory over Laszlo Komjathi which ruled him out of his re-arranged meeting with British champion Kell Brook last Friday. The ill-fated clash between Britain’s leading welterweights was previously scheduled for last October but Brook pulled out on the week of the fight after contracting a virus.
“I’m back in full-time training and am expecting to hear some news very soon about my next fight. It might be Kell Brook for the WBO inter-continental title but if not I’d still be interested in fighting for the British title if it becomes vacant. I’ll just have to wait and see,” commented Jennings.
Jennings produced a typically gutsy performance against Cotto but was ultimately outclassed and outgunned by the Puerto Rican superstar who floored the Chorley man three times en-route to a fifth round stoppage.
“I honestly believed I could beat Cotto and you might laugh but given the chance I’d like to fight him again. I tried to keep the build-up as normal as possible but it was difficult because I had to attend high-profile press conferences in America where I was subjected to a lot of negativity. People would ask me, ‘do you think you’ll last more than two rounds?’, which I thought was quite disrespectful,” admitted Jennings.
“I went over there to win otherwise I would never have taken the fight. Perhaps I stayed on the back foot a bit too long. The plan was to negotiate the early rounds and try and outbox him whilst tieing him up. I’m not the biggest puncher but people forget that I can fight on the front foot and that I do hit hard enough to command respect.”
While Jennings has been pondering what might have been, Kell Brook has been blazing a trail of destruction on the domestic front and is tipped by many to go on and make an impression at world level. Jennings now has first-hand experience of the gulf in class between British and European opposition compared with the world’s leading contenders and remains sceptical as to whether the Sheffield starlet can make a successful transition onto the world stage.
“I think Kell Brook is a very good fighter but it’s difficult to say how far he can go. Without wishing to sound disrespectful, I didn’t think Kell’s opponent on Friday (Krzysztof Bienias) was very good. He only threw about 40 or 50 punches throughout the whole fight but he was still able to catch Kell quite easily on the rare occasions he opened up, surmised Jennings.
"Based on that I’m not sure that Brook would fare that well in world class unless he can tighten his defence but we’ll see,” he added.
Brook’s comfortable sixth-round stoppage over Bienias at the Liverpool Echo Arena at the weekend saw him capture the WBO inter-continental championship and the Sheffield switch-hitter may now be forced to vacate his British title. Brook has already secured the Lonsdale belt outright following his British title victories gained over Barrie Jones, Kevin McIntyre, Stuart Elwell and Michael Lomax, much to the envy of Jennings.
“If I had a preference I’d love to fight for the British title if it becomes vacant to try and win the Lonsdale belt outright,” said Jennings, who won the British welterweight crown with a first round knockout of Jimmy Vincent in 2005 and successfully defended it against Bradley Pryce before losing it to Young Mutley on a split decision setback.
“I’m 32 now but I still think I’m more than capable of beating all the other British title contenders and I’d be disappointed if I couldn’t. I’m still happy to fight Kell Brook next though for the WBO inter-continental because I’ve never ducked anyone throughout my career.”
