Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis defends his IBF welterweight title against mandatory Karen Chukhadzhian in a rematch this Saturday, November 9. In the other big fight on the card, WBC super flyweight champion Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez fights Pedro Guevara. The event will be shown live on DAZN starting at 7:00 pm ET.
Neither of these fights is attractive to fans, who see them as mismatches. In the case of Boots, he has no choice because Chukhadzhian is his mandatory IBF fight. Including Bam Rodriguez on this card was a good idea, but it might not be enough to pull big ratings on DAZN.
What was really needed was Terence Crawford as the opponent of Boots Ennis because many fans are interested in seeing that fight.
Undercard
– Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez vs. Peter Guevara
– Raymond Ford vs. Orlando Gonzalez
– Khalil Coe vs. Manuel Gallegos
– Ernesto Mercado vs. Jesus Saracho
– Austin Williams vs Gian Garrido
Ennis (32-0, 29 KOs) will fight in front of his hometown fans at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. Being at home puts a lot of pressure on 27-year-old Boots Ennis’ shoulders as he needs to look good against a fighter he fought last year on January 7. Ennis won by scores of 120-108, 120-108 and 120-108.
Chukhadzhian (24-2, 13 KOs) lost every round to Ennis in a 12-round unanimous decision defeat, but made it look bad with movement and pesky shots thrown with little power.
“I’ve been watching Jaron Ennis for five years. This kid is unbeatable in my opinion,” said Eddie Hearn to Matchroom Boxing. “The speed, the power, the movement, the defense, the temperament, the work ethic, and he will rule the division at 147 and many divisions beyond.”
What makes it tougher for Ennis is that this is his second fight with Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn, and he didn’t look good in his debut with the company earlier this year against David Avanesyan on July 13.
Hearn’s expectations for Boots Ennis don’t seem to match reality. He talks about Ennis as if he is infallible, but his performances against Roiman Villa, David Avanesyan and Chukhadzhian showed that he has won. That could be one of the reasons why Ennis chose to settle his career at 147 with his unattainable goal of becoming an undisputed champion.
It would be possible if Hearn was willing to invest the money in Boots’ career to get the other champions to agree to fight. He didn’t do that. We can see Ennis stultified at 147 and unable to move forward because his promoter does not come up with the dough to make the champions fight.
“The plan is to pick up those belts and be undisputed at 147 and do the same thing at 154,” Ennis said. “The champions don’t want to fight me. It’s out of my hands. I did my best. I feel they lack confidence. They don’t believe in themselves. They know what’s ahead. A different kind of mentality, a different kind of beast”.
When Ennis speaks, he sounds naïve and doesn’t understand his bleak situation. Of course, what we don’t know is if Ennis is intentionally using his goal to collect the belts as an excuse to stay in the dead 147 lb division and avoid the killer sharks to 154 that would devour him whole. They could end Ennis’ career as a top-level fighter by beating him if he moves to 154.
So instead of going up, Ennis repeatedly says he’s staying at 147 to accomplish his goal of becoming undisputed champion. He sounds like a broken record when he talks about this subject, but this may just be a foxhole for Ennis to hide in order not to be beaten.
“Everybody keeps asking me about Bud. He’s the one fight everybody wants to see,” Ennis said of Crawford. “I tried, I tried. I wanted it to happen. It’s always going to be ‘Yes’ on my end. It’s up to them if it’s going to be ‘Yes’ on their end.”
Boots can’t be serious about wanting to fight Crawford because if he was, he would have already moved up to 154 to increase his chances of that fight happening.
“Obviously, they don’t want the fight. I’m focused on what I’m doing now. When I fought Chukhadzhian, my whole mind was ‘knockout’. You can’t go into a fight like that. When you have your fun, the stopping it will come,” said Ennis, giving his philosophy, which he has expressed in numerous interviews.
Former WBA featherweight champion Raymond Ford (15-1-1, 8 KOs) will fight for the first time since losing his title to Nick Ball via a 12-round split decision earlier this year on June 1 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We’ll see if the loss of Ball has affected Ford.
Orlando Gonzalez (23-2, 13 KOs) will look to send Ford to his second straight loss on Saturday. This is not the ideal opponent for Ford to turn against.
