Boxing
Dan Rafael, ESPN Senior Writer 5y

Bryant Jennings, Oscar Rivas to square off in Jan. 18 ESPN+ event

Boxing

Heavyweight contender Bryant Jennings, seeking another world title opportunity, and Oscar Rivas, looking for his first, will square off in a scheduled 12-round bout on Jan. 18 at the Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York, Top Rank announced on Tuesday.

The fight will headline a Top Rank Boxing on ESPN+ card (9:30 p.m. for main card with stream of preliminaries beginning at 6:30 p.m. ET).

The deal for Jennings-Rivas is done but Rivas (24-0, 17 KOs) is scheduled to fight Brazil's Fabio Maldonado (26-0, 25 KOs) on Dec. 1 in Quebec City on the undercard of light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson's defense against Oleksandr Gvozdyk. Rivas must win the fight and come out unscathed for the Jan. 18 bout to go forward.

"I've been in this situation before. This is not a tall order at all," Jennings said. "The job is to stay focused. I'm going to keep grinding and not take anybody lightly. Talk is cheap."

Jennings (24-2, 14 KOs), 34, of Philadelphia, will look to extend his winning streak to six since signing with Top Rank in mid-2017, following a 20-month layoff caused in part by issues with his previous promoter. Before the layoff, Jennings had lost two fights in a row, a unanimous decision challenging then-heavyweight world champion Wladimir Klitschko in April 2015 followed by a seventh-round knockout to top contender Luis "King Kong" Ortiz eight months later.

Rivas, 31, a 2008 Colombian Olympian who has fought his entire professional career out of Montreal, will be taking on by far his most notable pro opponent in Jennings.

''I've waited for this opportunity for a very long time," Rivas said. "Jennings is an excellent boxer. He is a world-class fighter and exactly the kind of challenge I was hoping to face. It is now time to take care of business and step up for the real challenges.''

Red-hot featherweight prospect Shakur Stevenson (9-0, 5 KOs), 21, the 2016 U.S. Olympic silver medalist from Newark, New Jersey, will fight an opponent to be determined in the scheduled 10-round co-feature.

"I am ready to begin 2019 where 2018 left off," said Stevenson, a southpaw who went 5-0 in 2018. "This will be the year where I take my career to the next level. The fans are going to be in for a treat. It's my time to shine."

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