"This is my second undefeated opponent. Mike Perez was another notable opponent and so was Artur Szpilka and I just took the hard road. I deserve respect. I'm not gonna say I demand it because I respect myself enough to have self respect for myself and I don't really care what other people think. I came up the hard way and I need to be respected. All fighters deserve to be respected. I did it in 4 years professionally and 5 years of total experience and I did it my way. I don't know what else they could ask for," stated undefeated heavyweight contender Bryant Jennings, who talked about his recent win over Mike Perez, his future plans, and much more. Check it out!
PC: Congratulations on the win. How do you feel?
BJ: I actually have an intro for this interview.
PC: What you got?
BJ: [Play's Jay-Z's "Most Kingz"] "You know when you've become a star when you're the biggest target out there. When everyone is on the court and they coming for you. When the opposing player walk into that arena they thinking about upstaging you. You're like a trophy to them. They are thinking if I'm better than this guy the spotlight turns on me, so you know when you're a superstar when you're a marked man and everyone is coming for you!" That's off of Jay- Z's "Most Kingz"; that's one of his realest joints, man. I bang that shit so much.
PC: Nice! Congrats on the win. You had to put in a workman-like effort. How do you feel?
BJ: Yeah man. It was kind of difficult in the beginning, but I made adjustments and I did it. I'm glad I started working hard when I did because if not, it wouldn't have been enough according to them.
PC: The commentators complained about the point deduction, but honestly I counted three fouls. He led with the crown of his head, he almost leaned on you hard enough to get you over the top rope, and he punched you on the break.
BJ: Exactly! I watched the reply and I'm looking like wow. He almost did to me what Victor Ortiz did to Floyd. Normal headbutts come with the forehead; he charged with the top of his head. And I'm like, man, I was looking to the ref like, damn ref, and the ref touched his back and said break and the ref always tell you obey my command at all times. That's why I fight so clean because if the ref tells me something, I don't want him to keep telling me and I get a point deduction. He knew that.
PC: He made it a rough fight, and some would say borderline dirty. How did you keep your composure through it all?
BJ: I don't really know, but I know I did a great job at it because his trainer was actually trying to make me mentally disturbed. I didn't even let none of that bother me. They were even trying to say things to make me look bad and embarrass me and I didn't let it bother me because I knew we had all of these rounds to get that work in. Him doing that only made me work harder.
PC: Was there something your trainer told you to spark you or did you just sense you needed to put your foot on the gas pedal?
BJ: I knew I had to put my foot on the gas. It was time to stop being so technical and literally find a better way to get in there because if you ask me, the fight could have been on the boring side. It could have been labeled a little boring only for the simple fact of, you had two strategists in there. You had two guys that was slick and he was trying to go off of my slickness and I was trying to go off of his slickness and we were going trick for trick and after awhile, you only get one good combination in. The only reason why I felt he did better in those first few rounds is because he looked better at doing nothing. He looked better than me at not doing nothing either. It's not like he was physical and he was overpowering me in the first few rounds.
PC: He came in a little heavy at the weigh-ins and he fights kind of lazy. Did you feel like if you weathered his early storm that over the course of 12 rounds, you would catch him somewhat tiring out?
BJ: Yeah! That's my edge with everybody is just to outwork them. You have most of these guys who are very big and they say, "Oh, he's just big. That's the only reason why he's doing this is because he's big." I'm a smaller guy. I work and working is much more valuable than having size. I work with a smaller body and that's my advantage; work. It's like, damn, there is no bigger advantage than to be able to work and outwork your opponent. I sensed he would tire and still in the back of my mind... I just don't believe in letting yourself go. I probably think different, but that could never be me. I don't see how anybody could just let themselves get that big or get to a point where it's not good looking.
PC: Was shaving your beard at the commission's request a big deal for you?
BJ: I fought my last fight in New York under the New York State Athletic Commission and I knew I had to shave my beard and it was like, "Alright, I'ma shave my beard again," but the bigger distraction at the time was the gloves. I had on bigger gloves. I don't even know if my gloves was actually 10 oz. Nobody even peeped that. The end of my laces came damn near to my elbows. My gloves were much bigger than his. But it was like, "You know what? Fuck it! I'm gonna do what I have to do." We almost... I'm not gonna say we almost didn't fight, but we almost didn't have any gloves. You know I have a 13 ½ inch hand and the size of my hands won't fit in these average gloves. They tried to bring me Everlast and I'm like, "That glove ain't gonna work. I'm only used to one Everlast glove, which is the 3C." Everlast said they don't make those anymore. The 3C'S are the upgrade from the 19-10 and those are a much wider and bigger glove that they actually discontinued. So the glove was an issue, but I got over it and we got the fight and I wasn't gonna let none of that stuff get me down or distract me. Even though I wanted them smaller ones, and I don't think our gloves were the same size, I was like, "Fuck it!" I couldn't fit the smaller ones and they wouldn't let me break 'em in or go back and put wraps on and try to see if I can fit 'em. But it wasn't the commissioner's fault; it was actually me not getting the gloves in the proper timing. I still had to deal with the gloves, but point that out that my gloves were bigger than Perez's gloves.
PC: Was there anything about Perez that surprised you at all?
BJ: He slick as hell. Only for a few rounds, but he slick. If he could be that slick as he is throughout the course of a fight, he's gonna give a lot of people a lot of problems. I don't know if it would work against a guy like me because I'm a hard worker and I'm gonna find the best way to win possible no matter what round of the fight we in. But the mentality of a lot of these guys, if he could keep that nice lil' slickness up, then he could be okay. But other than that, I wanted him to fight more and I wanted him to trade more because I wanted to let him know that I had some shit for him and I actually switched southpaw in the 11th round. It was going well, but I just wanted to keep my composure and me switching, I really didn't plan to switch. I knew it was kind of too late in the fight to do it and I should have maybe tried it out a little earlier, so I wanted to switch back up, switch to my game plan, and to remain doing what I was doing.
PC: How did you feel going 12 rounds?
BJ: Man, I literally could have went 5 more rounds. The only difference is in your brain, and this doesn't matter how many rounds you go, I realized the way I came out in the 12th round was great, but I only did that for about a minute. And it was like, "Well damn." I wasn't tired or nothing, but it was just in my head where this is the target, just hit anything. I wasn't trying to go for broke. I think I really just be too relaxed sometimes and I have to step my intensity level up. Maybe because I was used to cruising and winning all of the time, so I was used to being able to relax and take it easy in the last round. I wasn't used to me literally having to fight for the decision. And I think that played a part in it and I'm not gonna do that again. I'm gonna press and go hard for the entire round instead of catching my breath, going hard, and then catching my breath.
PC: That WBC strap means a lot to anybody in the sport. You are in line to fight for it now. What does that mean to you?
BJ: It definitely is a great honor to have that green belt around you; to have any belt around you that has significance. That's the game of me having to wait, but I want people to respect me for who I am and what I do. Everybody keep talking this inexperience stuff. People can witness you walking on water and still question if you can swim. It's like, "Listen man, I've only done this for 5 years and you can't cram everything into that little bit of time." I didn't let the crowd get to me. I had a great crowd of Philadelphia fans and they were chanting my name and I didn't let the crowd get to me I kept my composure. I came up the rough hill. I didn't get handpicked opponents. This is my second undefeated opponent. Mike Perez was another notable opponent and so was Artur Szpilka and I just took the hard road. I deserve respect. I'm not gonna say I demand it because I respect myself enough to have self respect for myself and I don't really care what other people think. I came up the hard way and I need to be respected. All fighters deserve to be respected. I did it in 4 years professionally and 5 years of total experience and I did it my way. I don't know what else they could ask for.
PC: For sure. I wish you the best moving forward. A lot of interest back in the division and we will talk soon. Anything else you want to say?
BJ: I like to thank everybody for supporting me and everybody who came out to the fight and who watched the fight. I want to thank everybody that believed in me regardless of the outcome, people will have good days and bad days; as long as you get the win, you can go back to the gym and learn some more on top of a win. Shout out to everybody and they can follow me on Twitter or Instagram @BYJennings; yeahdoe!
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]