Is he in tough against Oscar Rivas?
Top Rank heavyweight contender Bryant Jennings (24-2, 14 KOs) returns to the ring on Friday night on ESPN+ to headline against Canadian based Colombian heavyweight Oscar Rivas (25-0, 17 KOs) and I have no complaints about that. I really don’t think this is going to be an easy win for the house fighter in upstate NY.
I’ve been itching to see the Beijing Olympian step up to the plate for a few years now and Jennings is an excellent test for him. Oscar Rivas was supposed to make his Showtime debut against Gerald Washington three years ago now back in 2016, but something wrong with his eye led the California commission to pull him from the show. The Montreal heavyweight has basically been treading water since then while waiting to be cleared for a bigger fight and it is now here.
Rivas is a technically solid big man with decent athleticism and power. He also comes to each fight in shape. The unbeaten big man doesn’t do one thing particularly well above all others, but Oscar also doesn’t really have any obvious weaknesses. At least he doesn’t have any that would show up at the sort of mid regional level Rivas has been competing on in Canada. That could change against Bryant Jennings for sure though.
What I think we have here is a recipe for a pretty fun heavyweight fight with the potential for an upset. Bryant Jennings at times can use his reach to keep an opponent at bay, but just as often he is dragged into a heavyweight version of a war. Both his last two fights against Alexander Dimitrenko and Joey Dawejko were fun watches. They both probably should have been easier wins for a supposed top contender, but I will say both men were putting on big efforts against Jennings in there and Bryant did overcome them in the end. His two losses came against Wladimir Klitschko and Luis Ortiz in 2015 and a third might come here. Oscar Rivas is a steadier fighter than either Dimitrenko or Dawejko. If they could take rounds and caused some drama, he can too for sure. I actually think Rivas will pull off the upset here.
Also in action is 2016 Olympic silver medalist Shakur Stevenson (9-0, 5 KOs). Opponent Jessie Cris Rosales (22-1-1, 10 KOs) might look like a step up for the young prospect on paper with that record, but he isn’t much of one really when we take a deeper dive into it. Still, it’s fine to showcase Stevenson still for now rather than challenger him. He is a 21 year old with a lot of star potential.
The two fight main card begins at 9:30 PM Eastern Friday night on ESPN+, but this is one of those shows you should probably tune in earlier to if you’re a major fight fan. Olympic gold medalists Robson Conceicao and Fazliddin Gaibnazarov compete on the prelims alongside emerging contender Carlos Adames and former titleholder Jason Sosa. This is a very deep show. 6:30 PM Eastern is the start time for that portion of the show.
