In some ways it`s disappointing that Szpilka lost, but as Carcharias notes, it is absolutely true that he is very young and may improve in the future. It would have been ideal if Artur could have hungon and lose a decision, because a decision loss is usually easier to improve on than a TKO loss. But that being said, there is room for improvement with Artur.
The good news is Artur didn`t take many punches in this fight, so for sure his health is fine. I also agree with what Ambrose notes, that Artur seemed to be knocked out by fatigue more than actual punches. He looked dead tired in there to me, and the TKO appeared to come from the pace of the fight more so than the power of Jennings` shots.
I watched the fight socially, and I thought Szpilka had won perhaps 3 or 4 rounds in the fight, so Szpilka gave a good effort and account of himself. This was not a `dominating` win from Jennings and actually I thought the fight was relatively even up until the middle rounds when Jennings started to take over.
Overall, I don`t see either Szpilka or Jennings making it far in the heavyweight division. Perhaps they can improve. But realistically, at the present time, I`d favour Tyson Fury, Cris Arreola, Tony Thompson above both of them (just to name a few names). To be honest, I fancy even someone like Seth Mitchell might be able to get a win against them.
One of the reasons why Wladimir Klitschko, Gennady Golovkin, Joe Calzaghe and so on are special and all-time greats is because before even turning pro, these guys had like literally hundreds of amateur fights. Neither Szpilka or Jennings has that and it shows. In the HBO broadcast, they mentioned Szpilka`s amateur background, but to my knowledge he only took up boxing in his late teens.
It`s very hard for someone to be a champion or even a great fighter without having started boxing at a young age, and having many amateur fights.
I give credit to both fighters, Szpilka and Jennings on giving a good effort and I also give credit to both fighters on being willing to fight each other and risk losing their undefeated record. The truth is, many heavyweights take the `easy road` up the rankings (Deontay Wilder), so it`s refreshing to see two guys who aren`t afraid to take risks and take a ballsy approach to the fight game with respect to their matchmaking.
