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Bryant Jennings appears as though he will indeed be the next challenger to heavyweight king Wladimir Klitschko, with the two sides reportedly close on a deal that will bring Klitschko back to the United States for the first time since 2008. New York is the likely site for Klitschko-Jennings, but a venue has not been named.
Klitschko (63-3, 53 KO) has won 21 straight fights, all but one of them in truly dominant fashion, and went 2-0 this year, easily beating both Kubrat Pulev and Alex Leapai. The 38-year-old Ukrainian last fought in the States against Sultan Ibragimov, where he added Ibragimov's WBO title to the IBF title he'd already held. Klitschko also won the WBA belt in 2011 by beating David Haye, a fight that also made him the recognized RING Magazine champion, as well.
Jennings (19-0, 10 KO) is treating the fight as a done deal on Twitter, and he was always the leading candidate after Klitschko beat Pulev. The 30-year-old Philadelphia native won twice on HBO this year, beating Artur Szpilka and Mike Perez. He's probably the top -- or at least most accomplished while undefeated -- American heavyweight in the game today.
At 6'3" with an 84" reach and generally weighing just over 220 pounds, Jennings will be smaller than Klitschko, but almost everyone is. He'll also be a massive underdog, which, again, everyone is, and even when Klitschko has faced supposed top contenders like Haye, Pulev, or Alexander Povetkin, he has beaten them just about as handily as he's beaten laughed off foes like Jean Marc Mormeck or Leapai. It has really made no difference how heralded an opponent has been coming into a fight.
HBO will televise Klitschko-Jennings, as Wladimir signed a new deal with the network prior to the Pulev bout.
Do you think Jennings is a legitimate threat to Klitschko, or just another who will bite the dust challenging the top man in the division?