By Keith Idec
NEW YORK – Wladimir Klitschko compared Bryant Jennings to Rocky Balboa on Wednesday.
The heavyweight champion meant it as a compliment as he praised Jennings’ accomplishments and confidence during a news conference to officially announce their April 25 fight at Madison Square Garden (HBO). Like the fictional Balboa, Jennings is a hard worker from Philadelphia who’ll enter a heavyweight title fight as a huge underdog.
“I’m sure this fight will bring a lot of tension and a lot of energy,” Klitschko said. “I just see how Bryant Jennings acts. I see how he shakes hands. I see how he speaks. He has the qualities of Rocky Balboa. He’s from Philadelphia. He has made it to this stage, where he is sitting right now … it’s one of the highlights of [his] life to be sitting where he is sitting right now. And I want to congratulate him on that, and definitely pay a lot of respect to what [he has done] because he hasn’t started early with boxing. He started late, but [he] already made it that far, so congratulations.”
The 30-year-old Jennings (19-0, 10 KOs) didn’t take up boxing until 2009 and didn’t make his pro debut until February 2010. Klitschko (63-3, 53 KOs), who’ll turn 39 next month, made his pro debut when Jennings was 12 and has participated in more than three times as many professional fights as Jennings.
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
