By Edward Chaykovsky
Heavyweight contender Bryant Jennings (18-0, 10KOs) is ready for the best Mike Perez (20-0-1, 12KOs). The battle of undefeated heavyweights will take place on July 26th as the HBO televised co-feature to Gennady Golovkin-Daniel Geale from New York's Madison Square Garden.
Perez's HBO debut was an impressive one, where he won a war of punches with heavy hitter Magomed Abdusalamov last November. The brutal war left Magomed in a with a career-ending brain injuries. Perez returned in January and fought Carlos Takam to a lackluster draw. Perez did not look the same against Takam and whether he is feeling the effects of the war with Magomed is up for debate.
"Well, my assessment on Mike Perez and his career right now is pretty much my assessment on the way I see things as being a boxer myself and those were two different nights, two different bodies and you just can’t really pinpoint what the problem was even though it seemed to be a problem but you got to start comparing. Now you would compare Carlos Takam to Magomed," Jennings said.
"So it’s just like okay, those were two different types of fighters, two different nights. I don’t know, maybe Mike ate something that night or that morning that had him affected, but you can’t look at that and just say oh, he’s on the down slope and underestimate him and his ability and come into the fight unprepared thinking that he’s going to look like he did in his last fight."