By Edward Chaykovsky
Rumors are swirling of a possible fight between WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs) and top rated challenger Bryant Jennings (19-1, 10 KOs) on January 9th.
The rumors began to circulate when Jennings posted a message to Wilder on Instagram on September 27th, hinting that a deal was being discussed for January 9th.
“Skills is elementary! Work on them feet champ, they flying all over the place. #Jan9th the day you got it, the day you’ll lose it. @bronzebomber.”
Those rumors have no picked up some steam after Wilder's manager, Jay Deas, made it known that his fighter is likely going to have another voluntary defense in either December of January.
Wilder is mandated to fight Alexander Povetkin next. There is a scheduling issue because Povetkin is facing Mariusz Wach on November 4th and Russia and there would be no way possible to get prepared in such a short time period for a Wilder bout.
The WBC is expected to order the Wilder-Povetkin negotiations in November, after the outcome of the fight with Wach.
Jennings has been out of the ring since an April twelve round decision loss to WBA/IBO/IBF/WBO heavyweight king Wladimir Klitschko. He was offered the opportunity to face Luis Ortiz on the Gennady Golovkin vs. David Lemieux HBO Pay-Per-View undercard on October 17th. He turned the fight down citing concerns with the low amount of money being offered.
Jennings' promoter Gary Shaw was recently told that HBO would have difficult time finding him an opening for a fall return on their network and he would probably have to wait until sometime next year for a date. That opens up the door for Jennings to take his business elsewhere.
Showtime exec Stephen Espinoza told BoxingScene.com a few days ago that Wilder is being positioned to return to the network on a date in December or January. Two of Wilder's three fights in 2015 have been carried by Showtime. The last fight, with Johann Duhaupas, was carried by NBC as part of the Premier Boxing Champions series.