Jury wants a rematch with home favourite

MATT JENNINGS is set for a rematch with hot prospect Sonny Jury at next month's big open show and already the two camps are involved in a respectful war of words. Guernsey's premier boxer defeated the exciting Jury in their cruiserweight clash at the December dinner boxing night.

The former junior national champion from the Thames Valley ABC wants another crack at Jennings and it looks as if that will come to fruition at the biggest event on the local boxing calendar to be held at Beau Sejour on Saturday 24 February.

'I rang his coach, Paul Cooke, last night and asked him if he knew of anybody to fight Jennings and he said Sonny wanted a rematch,' said Jennings' coach Graham Guilbert.

'He said Sonny had a cold last time and to give him another opportunity. I want him to box Jennings at the Beau Sejour show. That will be a cracking bout.'

In their previous fight, Jennings gave a considered performance to win by a unanimous points decision.

Although Jury is only 19, he has racked up almost twice the number of fights that Jennings, who will be 31 by the time of the open show, has had.

But the Sarnian says he is confident of a repeat victory and is going to pull out all the stops.

'I'm pretty confident about it - I can't see myself losing to him,' said Jennings.

'I was pretty confident last time and I was testing myself over four rounds. I know he's a good boxer and he's good technically.

'He's had about 54 fights - he's been round a bit. I'll be trying to stop him.'

The 800 odd tickets for last year's open show sold out in 90 minutes and this year's promises to be just as popular.

The atmosphere in the Sir John Loveridge Hall is arguably unmatched.

From the very first bout the partisan Guernsey crowd boisterously get behind their boxers and the atmosphere reached fever pitch when Jennings came into the ring for the top-of-the-bill bout.

The Guernsey star is looking forward to it.

'It will be great,' he said.

Jury's Newbury-based coach Cooke says his boxer is up for the challenge and they feel they had been on the wrong end of the judges' scores in November.

He also pointed out that Jury had had only seven days to get ready for that fight.

'Last time we felt a bit hard done by. I know it was close but the scoring was well out, but that's what the judges saw so you've got to go with that.

'Jennings covers well but having your home crowd roaring every punch doesn't mean that they are landing all the time. Sonny's had 54 fights and that was the first time he's come out of the ring and said that he wanted a rematch.

'It was a good battle. On the day Jennings won it but I don't think there's a lot between them.

'This time we'll have more time to prepare.'

There is also a very good chance that Jennings and Jury will meet again after the open show as they are both entering the national Senior ABA Championships.

Jennings has the south-west regionals in March while Jury is going down the Eastern Counties route.

If they are both successful, they could be matched up in the second round or the quarter-finals.