Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis was reluctant to give challenger Karen Chukhadzhian credit for his outstanding performance in their rematch on Saturday night at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. Boots (33-0, 29 KOs) retained his IBF welterweight title, winning a 12-round unanimous decision, but Chukhadzhian (24-3, 13 KOs) earned credit instead of a “bottom level” fighter by him in the post-fight interview.
The scores:
– 119-107
– 117-109
– 116-110
Ennis and Bozy panicked
Chukhadzhian’s powerful punches and his skills sent Ennis and his trainer/father, Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis, into a panic by the seventh round. Bozy kept barking the same instruction, telling him to get the knockout. He made it sound like Boots could just casually go out and knock out any time when the reality was he was drowning. There were no real instructions from Bozy. He just told Ennis to go for the knockout and sounded like a mess.
Boots looked embarrassed during and after the fight as the fans didn’t cheer him, and there were scattered boos about how badly he was doing. Rather than take the high road and credit Chukhadzhian for out-boxing him for most of the fight, Ennis said he didn’t do well because he wasn’t motivated.
Ennis scored a fifth round knockout as he landed a series of hard punches after catching Chukhadzhian with a powerful left. He wasn’t hurt, but went down because Ennis was crowding him and throwing punches non-stop. Chukhadzhian could not escape the pressure. In the tenth, the referee took away a point from Chukhadzhian for holding.
The referee should have penalized Boots for the low blows he had already been hitting Karen with during the fight because it was far worse than the blows that were going on.
Boots Struggle Against “Bottom-Tier Fighter”
Chris Mannix: “Your offense is still among the best in the welterweight division, if not the best, but for the second fight in a row we’ve seen you get hit more often than we’ve seen in the past. What do you need to do defensively to get better for these big fights,” said Chris Mannix DAZN to Jaron Ennis after his win over Karen Chukhadjian.
Jaron Ennis: “Just fight against the bigger names. “Sometimes when you fight bottom guys, you don’t stand up for them,” Ennis said. “I know when I’m fighting a better guy. I’m going to be crazy. I’m going to be on point. This is what will make me better. I need these top guys.”
Mannix: “I was going to ask you to unify these titles, but it sounds like you’re ready to get out of 147.”
Ennis: “If we can get one of these guys, let’s make it happen. If not, 154, here I come.”
Eddie Hearn: “I thought it was a great performance from Chukhadzhian. They said they were going to give us a gig this time, and they did. Boots wasn’t always turned on like he would be against a fighter he had a fear factor against. I noticed this week that he was much tighter (translation: struggling to gain weight) than normal at 147.”
