By Matt Lieberman: Undefeated welterweight contender Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis (28-0, 26 KOs) sent a message to the other top fighters at 147 with a first round knockout win over former world title challenger Thomas Dulorme (25-6-1, 16 KOs) on Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas.
Ennis, 24, knocked the 31-year-old Dulorme down twice in the first round before referee Michael Ortega halted.
In the first knockdown, Ennis landed a left hook followed by a right to the head that dropped Dulorme hard.
When Dulorme got back up, Ennis closed in to try and finish the job, but he was nailed by two hard right hands from the Puerto Rican native.
Moments later, Ennis landed a left-right combination to put Dulorme down for the second and final time. Dulorme tried to get back up to beat the count but he was too hurt.
It was an excellent win for Ennis, who took Dulorme out much faster than Terence Crawford’s sixth round knockout in 2015. Perhaps Dulorme was a little better at that point in his career than he is now, but it’s doubtful that Crawford could have done what Ennis did tonight.
This victory tonight for Ennis may scare off the champions at 147, making it necessary for him to become a mandatory for him to get a title shot. That’s what Ennis was predicting this week.
He felt that after he destroyed Dulorme, the champions won’t want to give him a title shot and he’d have to become the mandatory challenger to force them to fight.
It would be good to see Ennis in with Crawford in 2022 or Errol Spence Jr. One of those two would be excellent, but we’ll see how it goes. Ennis said this week that he’ll definitely be fighting for a world title next year.
Ennis is currently ranked #3 IBF, #5 WBA, #5 WBO and #6 WBC. This writer would like to see Ennis take on one of these contenders next:
- Keith Thurman
- Abel Ramos
- Conor Benn
- David Avanesyan
- Mario Barrios
- Daniyar Yeleussinov
- Danny Garcia
- Shawn Porter
- Egidijus Kavaliauskas
In other action on the card, undefeated lightweight champion Michael Rivera (22-0, 14 KOs) defeated Juan Macias Romero (24-2, 8 KOs) by a one-sided 10 round unanimous decision.
The scores were 100-90, 100-90, and 100-90. Boxing News 24 scored it 100-90 as well.
Rivera is someone that doesn’t get mentioned when talking about the top fighters at 135, but from how he looked tonight, he’d possibly beat Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia, Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero, and Jorge Linares. Teofimo Lopez, Vasily Lomachenko, and Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis might be too talented and powerful for Rivera.
