Bryant Jennings uneasy about most likely road back to relevance

If anyone stands to benefit from the deep-pocketed support of the heavyweight division by Saudi Arabia, it’s someone like Bryant Jennings.

The last heavyweight title challenger defeated by former long-reigning champion Wladimir Klitschko, Jennings, 39, added another interesting wrinkle to his bio sheet Saturday night in Philadelphia by returning from more than a five-year absence to post a clean sweep of the scorecards (80-72 three times) over 300-pound opponent Joe Caudle.

“I don’t think anybody can explain what being out of something for five years and getting back into it feels like,” Jennings told BoxingScene on Monday. “In some ways, it was better this time around because I was more conscious than just fighting on instincts. A lot of times, we fight off instincts, just swinging.

“I’m more conscious and aware of what I was doing, particularly being in a ring that was super-small and super-slippery. Based off all that and the fluidity of my punches, knowing I’ll be 40 next year, it was comparable to the younger days. Physically, I’m at a disadvantage. But I didn’t see or feel any disadvantages in that fight.”

Given the presence of older and more rotund contenders lingering around the heavyweight landscape – such as former champion Andy Ruiz Jr., Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller and Dillian Whyte – the fit, 228-pound Jennings could spend the next year or less tending to his activity and skill set and find a way in as a foe to fellow veterans still around the top-10 rankings.

When Jennings walked away in 2019 following a loss to Joe Joyce, guys like Tyson Fury, Joseph Parker and OIeksandr Usyk were prominent names. Like Jennings, those current and former titleholders have climbed closer to 40 than 30.

And since Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh seems most riveted by heavyweight action, a revived Jennings has value.

With Saturday’s outcome in the bank, Jennings went back to work quickly, reporting to trainer “Bozy” Ellis in the gym.

As he did so in one of America’s most prominent boxing cities, however, Jennings cautioned that the sport he loves would be wise to pause taking so much of its action to the oil-rich kingdom.

“Everybody’s so focused on what the fuck Saudi Arabia’s doing. What’s happening is our own very sport is being outsourced and oversaturated,” he said. “The money part is very respectful, but it can also take away something. Right now, technically, it’s good for boxing. But for people to just focus on that and not think things through, it just shows that people are wowed a little too easily.”

Jennings knows the depth of interest in the sport – and the heavyweights – in the U.S. and Europe, and he wonders, “Can we at home produce a similar plan?

“Why is our big dream to get to Saudi Arabia?” he asked. “What the fuck? It used to be all the big fights would be in Madison Square Garden, Wembley Stadium, Las Vegas, the O2. How did it get to this, with boxing so deeply rooted in the U.S. and U.K.?

“It’s just my perspective, and I’m raising the question knowing we still need levels in boxing. We still need club, local and amateur shows. If this is the new heaven and dream, I look forward to it. I’ve already put so much work in and I want to fight all around the world still, but I hope all the promoters don’t get washed away. The way the sport’s evolving now, we are seeing it change like never before.”

Jennings (25-4, 14 KOs) will take his next proposed fight as it comes, considering it with more deliberation than he exercised when meeting a “murderer’s row” of four consecutive fights against Artur Spzilka, Mike Perez, Klitschko and Luis Ortiz in a 2014-2015 span.

“I now understand the intent – how it was out of my best interest and in the best interest of the promoter or the opponent to take those fights” Jennings said. “I understand I have to be more careful when it comes to taking fights.”

He said he didn’t gain much insight Saturday by fighting a defensive, well-guarded foe.

“I’m a 40-year-old making a comeback and looking good,” Jennings said. “People will wonder: How is that possible? And all of the names still powerful in the division are around my class, my age. That’s why I’m confident. It’s not a bunch of new people. It’s still the same names. If I can start sharing a ring with some of these guys on their [cards], I’ll be in better position.

“I’m not chasing names, I’m chasing positions. The position for me is progress. I don’t want to rush. It has to make sense – physically, mentally, where I am technically, how much more I can stand.”

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.