The A-side fighters got their expected knockout wins on ESPN tonight. Bryant Jennings might have had a bit more trouble along the way, but he got there in the end. Jesse Hart rolled.
Bryant Jennings (24-2, 14 KOs) and Alexander Dimitrenko (41-4, 26 KOs) didn’t look like a compelling fight when it was signed. I didn’t think it would be exciting or competitive. Sometimes I am glad to be wrong. The first two rounds looked like what I expected with Jennings rushing in, Dimitrenko clinching, and the Philly heavyweight trying his best to dig to the body in the limited territory. The fight got more interesting in the third, however, when I started seeing the giant Russian beginning to time sharp right hands over some sloppy technique from Bryant Jennings. This came to a head in the fourth when one of those right hands caught the house fighter just right to put him down on the canvas. Jennings was more less fine after rising, but the blow really changed the tenor of the fight.
From there we had fun. Determined to reassert himself, Jennings came out aggressive in round five. He really seemed to be bothering his bigger opponent with beautiful body work. His success continued through the sixth, but suddenly Alexander’s right had came storming back in the seventh. He began pumping his jab aggressively and shooting those nice rights behind it. Unfortunately it was a one round comeback, however, as the eighth marked disaster for the Russian former title contender. A left hook caught him high on his head and badly messed up his equilibrium. After stumbling, he went down to a knee. Dimitrenko rose, but he went down again basically from the damage already done.
Somewhat surprisingly given his reputation for folding, Alexander kept fighting through the trouble into the ninth. He was doing pretty well too, but it didn’t matter. Bryant Jennings had a hell of a surprise for him in the form of an absolutely gorgeous uppercut from inside the clinch. This was a rare shot to land this effectively. Dimitrenko crumbled and the fight was immediately waved off. The problem here is that he definitely seemed like he could have continued given how easily he bounced back up. The 6’7″ heavyweight was likely to be finished anyway, but the stoppage was premature in the view of almost everyone.
Still, it didn’t spoil a good heavyweight scrap. Neither man is going to be able to compete with the top few guys in the division, but that doesn’t need to always be what it is about in there. Jennings overcame adversity in a fun way and Dimitrenko did somewhat redeem himself from the Joseph Parker atrocity despite being finished. I wouldn’t remind a rematch. A title fight for Jennings isn’t likely anyway, or at least a real one isn’t. Maybe he can collect a fake WBA belt, I guess.
Jesse Hart (25-1, 21 KOs) an easier even go of it in the co-feature than Jennings had in the main event. There is very little to say about his one. Mike Gavronski (24-3-1, 15 KOs) was never going to be competitive here and he wasn’t. Hart at least buzzed him in each of the first two rounds behind an aggressive attack. Early in the third a right hand more less finished the job as Gavronski buckled to the floor. The Pacific northwest native got up, but two more shots quickly put him back down and that was that. I will say that Jesse did seem a bit more under control here with his sometimes wild offense at the very least if we must take something meaningful from this pointless exercise.
With the win Hart retained his position as the WBO’s mandatory challenger. This status would give him a rematch of his exciting, narrow defeat to Zurdo Ramirez last fall in theory, though the Philly contender has been on record as to saying he thinks Ramirez will definitely avoid the sequel. Whether or not that is true remains to be seen. I enjoyed the first fight and personally wouldn’t mind the rematch, but at the same time Zurdo may move up or pursue unification fights.
