Bryant Jennings returns to NBC Sports on December 8

American heavyweight hopeful Bryant Jennings will fight for the fourth time on NBC Sports this year when he returns to the ring on December 8, headlining in his native Philadelphia at Temple University's Performing Arts Center. It will be Jennings' fifth fight overall in 2012.

When the calendar turned over to 2012, Jennings (15-0, 7 KO) wasn't talked up much as one of the country's top heavyweight prospects, but that changed as soon as he got some TV exposure. In January, he defeated Maurice Byarm to get the NBC Sports run started off right, in what was actually an emergency main event when the Eddie Chambers-Siarhei Liakhovich fight fell apart.

His performance that night - controlled, disciplined, and pleasing to watch - drew strong reviews, and suddenly, we had another young American worth keeping an eye on in what used to be boxing's glory division. He followed the win over Byarm with defeats of Siarhei Liakhovich, Steve Collins, and Chris Koval. The latter two fights were utter mismatches, with Collins game but out of his league, and Koval wiped out in 35 seconds on the Adamek-Walker undercard on Wealth TV.

Main Events will likely be trying to put something tougher than those two bouts together for Jennings to close out 2012, as he's turned some heads and emerged as possibly the most promising American heavyweight fighting today.