‘It’s hard to let go’: why Bryant Jennings is returning five years after defeat

When on Saturday night Bryant Jennings walks to the ring to confront Joel Caudle, he will do so as an active fighter for the first time in over five years.

It was in July 2019, at London’s O2 Arena against Joe Joyce, that Jennings was scored the loser via unanimous decision at the conclusion of 12 competitive rounds. Since then, he has remained inactive; a fighter almost entirely forgotten about while the heavyweight division was largely bought out by Saudi Arabia and held up while the demand for Tyson Fury-Oleksandr Usyk grew.

During those five years Fury and Usyk eventually fought after two postponements, Francis Ngannou was lavishly financially rewarded as a heavyweight pretender, Deontay Wilder’s career as a world-level contender was ended, and most recently Daniel Dubois was elevated to the status of champion of the IBF. 

Jennings, who maintains he defeated Joyce in 2019, also watched Joyce record his finest victory over Joseph Parker before twice succumbing to Zhilei Zhang, and Jared Anderson emerge as America’s heavyweight hope as dramatically as Martin Bakole jeopardised Anderson’s prospects. 

The speculation surrounding fantasy fights that suddenly seem possible has become as consistent a feature as contests between fighters who are declining. Joyce most recently lost to Derek Chisora – Jennings was in London to help Chisora to prepare and to offer his support to a fighter he didn’t expect to still be active – contributing to the American, 39, detecting considerable opportunity in the event of his return.

Jennings insists he isn’t doing so because he needs the money and also that he never once considered himself retired. Instead, he plans to gradually re-establish himself, and potentially to return to the level he once reached when inflicting the first defeat of Mike Perez’s career, and also when then testing himself against Wladimir Klitschko and the undefeated Luis Ortiz.

“I was trying to do it as quiet as possible, because it’s been a while, so I just wanted to do it quick,” he told BoxingScene of Saturday’s fight at The Met Philadelphia, in his home city.  

“My understanding of my physical abilities; my understanding of the openness, still, of the boxing game; the lack of progression, as far as a new era actually taking over. We have quite a few new names, like the younger guys, but it’s still the Furys, the Usyks, the [Anthony] Joshuas, the Chisoras. They are from my class, and these are still the most competitive people in the heavyweight division. 

“I would assume myself to also be in that line-up. If it was a bunch of 20-year-olds, or 25-year-olds, running the game and running the older guys out – but it’s not that, and I still have my faculties and my physical abilities to be able to compete.

“I’ve been hinting at [returning] for a while, but it wasn’t until it was actually planned out [that it started to take place]. I pitched myself to a couple of promoters; they didn’t seem quite interested. ‘Okay, I’ll just do my thing on my own.’ I would say about a year ago – time moves by fast – and then I worked towards something.

“You gotta take into account of two-and-a-half years, and the aftermath of a pandemic, and that’s exactly why I stepped away, because they tried to force me to take the vaccine. I had to step away two weeks before a fight. I had to just say, ‘I’m out’. That’s not right – you’re not supposed to take a fight away from a guy just because of a vaccine. It took a while for things to become normal. Now that it’s normal – now that it’s back up and running – here I go again.”

It was in 2021, in a rematch in Canada with Oscar Rivas at bridgerweight, that Jennings’ plans to fight were abandoned. He remains as ready to compete at bridgerweight as at heavyweight – it is at heavyweight where he will fight the lightly regarded 34-year-old Caudle – and instead is prioritising the activity that he believes he will need to return to close to his best. 

It, similarly, is relevant that in his absence his fellow Philadelphian Jaron “Boots” Ennis has emerged as the world’s finest welterweight. Ennis’ promoters Matchroom have made little secret of their desire to showcase him in his home city; Jennings’ trainer is Ennis’ father and trainer Derek “Bozy” Ennis; there therefore exists the potential for him to spar Jarrell Miller, a fighter benefitting from Saudi Arabia’s investment in the heavyweight division, and more relevantly the chance to fight in promotions of the significance Philadelphia has long lacked.

“If I come back I’m making more money, but it’s not like, ‘Oh my God, I’m fighting ‘cause I need crumbs’,” he said ahead of the Rodney Rice-promoted showdown. “No. But you do have ambition and you do understand your bread and butter when it comes to what actually makes you the money. Just because you perform for money, it doesn’t have to be a desperation. It doesn’t have to be a desperate moment where you’re saying, ‘I need the money’. I’m well off, but we can always use the money, as long as our tools work; as long as our brains work; as long as we work, we can always use the extra money.

“In the beginning I was supposed to be a part of a lot of that [Saudi Arabia’s ambitions]. Covid really messed up a lot of different things. But if a fight’s not in Saudi, it doesn’t mean I don’t want to fight.

“That there [fighting in Philadelphia] is something that’s very interesting. Jaron Ennis – his father is my trainer. It’s a close-knit situation, and it makes all the sense in the world, and it’s not something I’d have to go to someone else for on the outside. I’m pretty much at home.

“[I want to] get some action; they are throwing around a bunch of money right now. They are throwing around a bunch of money, and I’m still just so attached; no matter what, it’s hard to let go.

“Getting the quick win – I don’t think that this fight here is the real ring-ruster. This one is for the exposure; just getting the feel back; walking to the ring and feeling that feeling. ‘Wow, I’m really in here.’ I would think that knocks off the jitters, or the anxiety, or whatever that you would have normally going into the ring. Then maybe the next one is getting some rounds, the atmosphere of the sport.

“One month; two months [for that next fight]. Don’t matter. All of this fighting once a year type of thing – that’s what killed a lot of the game. ‘Next time we see this guy it’s going to be March.’ Damn, I don’t want that.

“I understand the toll that [fighting] can take off a person’s lack of work ethic. I’ve seen people go downhill even faster [than Joyce while I’ve been inactive]. Five years is a long time for somebody to be able to go downhill; I’ve seen people go downhill faster. If you don’t take care of yourself; don’t take care of your body; if you don’t work hard; you don’t stay disciplined, then these are the things that you can fall victim to.

“[Assisting Chisora] inspired me to be able to appreciate the love that he gets, and the identity of his career, and how much respect and love that he’s gotten. That fight was good enough to walk out on. I understand he wants to do two more, but that right there was the stamp of a career to say, ‘You know what? No matter what happens, he finished it off strong’. He don’t have to have another fight.”

Bernard Neequaye is a sports journalist with a specialty in boxing coverage. He wrote a boxing column titled “From The Ringside” in his native Ghana for years. He can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) at @BernardNeequaye, LinkedIn at Bernard Neequaye and through email at [email protected].