On Saturday, July 26, 2014, live from Madison Square Garden, Bryant Jennings (19-0, 10 KOs) scored a split decision victory over Mike Perez (20-1-1, 12 KOs) in a 12-round Heavyweight fight.
Jennings is now the mandatory challenger for the winner of the WBC Heavyweight title fight between Bermane Stiverne and Deontay Wilder.
Perez, a 28-year-old southpaw from Ciego de Avila, Cuba, controlled the fight early with the help of his Cuban amateur background.
A long jab followed by combination punches and changes of the angle allowed Perez to control the pace early.
His Cuban style, however, was not enough to keep him conditioned for most of the fight as Perez seemed to get gradually slower and more sluggish.
Indeed, by the middle rounds, Jennings was able to close the gap on the scorecards, landing uppercuts and right hooks in the fifth round as both men exchanged in the center of the ring.
Jennings, a 29-year-old Philadelphia, Pennsylvania native, relied on his boxing fundamentals to outwork and outhustle Perez in to the later rounds, landing punches as a sluggish and sloppy Perez leaned forward to throw punches with his hands down.
Perez would spend the rest of the night using his weight to tire Jennings out, landing good combinations of his own but leaving himself open to right hooks and left uppercuts.
In the 12th round, a round Perez was able to win, referee Harvey Dock deducted a point from Perez because he pushed Jennings’ head down to land a punch while Dock was telling him to stop punching.
The point deduction was unnecessary and would have made the fight a draw, but Jennings was able to walk away with his undefeated record still in tact, while Perez dropped the first fight of his professional career.
Judge Joseph Pasquale scored the bout 115-112 for Jennings and Judge Glenn Feldman scored the bout 114-113 for Jennings while Tom Schreck scored the bout 113-114 for Perez.
