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It’s a huge night of British boxing as heavyweight prospect Joe Joyce takes on former world heavyweight title challenger Bryant Jennings on July 13, 2019, at the O2 Arena in London. The fight will serve as the undercard for the event titled “Heavy Duty” which will feature the British Heavyweight title fight between unbeaten young guns Daniel Dubois and Nathan Gorman as the main event.
Joe Joyce vs Bryant Jennings
Joe Joyce is the Commonwealth heavyweight boxing champion. He has held that title since May 2018 when he knocked out Lenroy Thomas in the second round at the O2 Arena. As an amateur, Joyce was a gold medalist at the 2014 Commonwealth games and in 2015, he won the European Olympic trials and went on to win the silver medal in the super heavyweight class at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
The 33-year old from London, England stands 6-5 ½ with a reach of 80 ½ inches. Juggernaut has a professional record of 9-0 with 9 knockouts. After an 8th round knockout win in his pro debut, he has gotten past round five just once. In his most recent fight, Joyce scored a third round knockout win over former world title challenger Alexander Ustinov last month.
Bryant Jennings is a former world title challenger who also challenged for the interim world title once, doing both in the same year. While he has never won a world title or even come close to winning one, his resume of victims includes former champion Siarhei Liakhovich and former world title challengers Artur Szpilka and Mike Perez. Jennings has also fought ( and lost to ) the likes of Wladimir Klitschko and Luis Ortiz.
The 34-year old from Philadelphia in Pennsylvania has a record of 24-3 with 14 knockouts while fighting out of the orthodox stance. Jennings stands 6-3 and has a reach of 84 inches. He won his first 19 bouts before going 5-3 in his last eight fights. He is coming off a knockout loss to Oscar Rivas last January. Rivas is Dillian Whyte’s next opponent.
Who Wins?
Finally, Joe Joyce fights a “real” opponent. And while Jennings may not be the best option out there, he is a clear step up from his previous foes. Jennings has fought a pair of world champions in Wladimir Klitschko and Luis Ortiz. He’s also defeated a pair of former title challengers in Perez and Szpilka and a former champion in Liakhovich. He’s going to pose some problems for Joyce, at least early in this fight. The American has a four-inch reach advantage over Joyce and Jennings has a very decent jab. If he uses that to his advantage, that’s going to win him rounds early. Jennings may plan to use the entire real estate and move in different directions inside the ring to throw off his opponent.
Joyce is a notoriously slow starter, has little movement and is easy to hit. That’s going to give Jennings the chance to pile up the rounds early on. But once he gets going and finds his range, I think that Joyce is going to pick it up in the middle rounds and start to take over. However, Joyce is going to have to take punches in order to land some. Jennings isn’t a Wilder kind of puncher but he hits hard and Joyce has never been in trouble before.
This should be a good learning experience for Joyce and I don’t think there’s too much risk here. He just needs to keep his composure and not get frustrated if the early stages of the fight doesn’t go his way. I think Joyce tires and stops Jennings late but not after going through a good learning experience. Prediction: Joe Joyce
Daniel Dubois vs Nathan Gorman
Daniel Dubois was supposed to be groomed for Britain’s 2020 Olympic team but the five-time national junior champion decided to turn pro in 2017. 11 fights later, he is undefeated with a record of 11-0 with 10 knockouts. The 6-5 orthodox fighter with a reach of 78 inches will be facing fellow unbeaten fighter Nathan Gorman for the vacant British Heavyweight title, with the winner moving up to the ranks of contenders in the world scene.
Like Dubois, Nathan Gorman is undefeated with a record of 16-0 with 11 knockouts. The former Central Area heavyweight champion is trained by former world champion Ricky Hatton. He is the great nephew of bare-knuckle fighter Bartley “King of Gypsies” Gorman who was also undefeated. The 22-year old Gorman stands 6-3 and has a reach of 73 inches and is coming off back to back wins over veterans Razvan Cojanu and Kevin Johnson.
Who Wins?
Although Dubois is the boxing betting favorite here, this is a very even match between two prospects who want to move up as contenders. Neither fighter had a standout amateur career but for sure, Dubois had the better one. Neither of these fighters has been dropped nor seriously hurt before so it will be interesting how each takes the other’s power here. Speaking of punching power, I think Dubois punches harder. Gorman loves to come forward, break his opponents down with head and body punches. He may not punch as hard as his opponent but he is definitely physically stronger. Dubois is taller and has a longer reach. The latter is going to be an advantage early because if he pops the jab, he’s going to pile up the points and win rounds. We haven’t seen much of his jab though but that’s because he hasn’t needed it before. He’s going to need it against a physically imposing opponent like Gorman. I think Gorman’s best chance is to rough up Dubois and bully him. Dubois is more technically sound, he is faster and more explosive. Dubois wins the early rounds fighting from the outside. Gorman gets back to the fight by forcing the issue. In the end, though, skill and speed will win it for Dubois. Prediction: Daniel Dubois
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