Jaron Ennis dominates Karen Chukhadzhian to retain IBF welterweight
IBF welterweight world champion Jaron "Boots" Ennis faced a familiar opponent on Saturday night fighting at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia and the result was also the same. After dominating Karen Chukhadzhian (24-3, 13 KOs) 120-108 on all three of the judges scorecards 22 months ago to win the title, Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs), defeated his mandatory challenger again by unanimous decision 119-107, 117-109 and 116-110.
Although he easily defeated his opponent, the Philadelphia native was not satisfied with his showing and saw some of the crowd exit before the bout ended.
"My performance was okay," Ennis said. "I don't know, it might be time to go to 154. I felt good, but I feel at 154 I'm going to be way better."
Ennis said he was prepared for whatever tactics his opponent would use, and Chukhadzhian had a point deducted for excessive holding. But the champion admitted he took more blows than necessary. He also gave himself an average grade for allowing the fight to go the distance.
"That's on me though, I needed to take half a step back, rip those shots, use my angles, and just listen more. My dad (trainer Derek Ennis) was saying everything right and I just wasn't listening," Ennis said about not being able to get a knockout the home crowd desired.
Related: Jaron Ennis TKO's David Avanesyan to defend IBF welterweight title
"I appreciate everybody that came out and showed their support, even though it wasn't a top guy," he said. "Every time I fight here it's going to get bigger and better."
Ennis had been calling out former undisputed welterweight champion Terence Crawford, who has since moved up a weight class and is the current WBA light middleweight and WBO interim light champion. Ennis is not ready for Crawford and he might know it. He did not mention Crawford after the fight and would likely suffer the first loss of his career if he faced him.
The UFC returns to Madison Square Garden on Saturday with UFC 309 as the man regarded by many as the MMA GOAT, Jon Jones (27-1-0, 1 NC), will make the first defense of his heavyweight title, going up against former two-time champion Stipe Miocic (20-4-0). Neither Jones nor Miocic has been in the octagon in quite some time.Jones last competed in March 2023 when he easily defeated Ciryl Gane in the first round to win the title, while Miocic has not faced competition since March 2021, when he lost to the UFC heavyweight title to current PFL heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou.
