By Sam Volz: Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis (30-0, 27 KOs) believes there’s a better chance now that the welterweight champions Errol Spence Jr or Terence Crawford will fight him following his less-than-scintillating performance against a survival-focused, fleet of foot Karen Chukhadzhian (21-2, 11 KOs) in winning a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision at the Capitol One Arena in Washington, D.C.
If Spence or Crawford needed to see vulnerability in Boots Ennis for them to want to fight him, last night’s bout might have been what they were looking for.
Was Boots weight drained?
Boots’ punches lacked the snap that is usually there, and he appeared weight drained after coming in at a painfully thin 145 1/2 lbs at Friday’s weigh-in. Did Boots Ennis overtrain for the fight, or is it time for him to start thinking about moving up to 154?
What was telling was that two weeks before the fight, Boots looked like he’d already begun cutting weight and was too thin compared to past fights, which suggests that he overtrained due to the intense interest in his co-feature slot on the Gervonta Davis vs. Hector Luis Garcia card.
The judges scored 120-108, 120-108, and 120-108, all for Boots Ennis. With Chukhadzhian just there to survive and not win, it’s not surprising that the scores were so one-sided.
Chukhadzhian wasted his opportunity
At the same time, it’s sad that Chukhadzhian made the fight unwatchable and ruined his moment in the spotlight, as it’s unlikely he’ll get another opportunity like this against a name fighter due to all the running & spoiling he did. When you get a big chance like the one Chukhadzhian was given by fighting a young star like Boots Ennis, you got to give it your best shot to WIN, not just focus on survival.
To be sure, Ennis, 25, had a tougher time than expected in cutting off the ring against the constantly moving Chukhadzhian, who looked like a mix of Vasyl Lomachenko & Oleksandr Usyk in terms of his movement but did very little on the offense-side of the game.
Chukhadzhian was darting left & right, focusing on not getting clipped by Ennis, who didn’t help himself by fighting flat-footed throughout the entire 12-round contest.
You can blame Boots and his trainer/dad Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis for not doing their homework properly to prepare for the nonstop movement of Chukhadzhian.
They should have looked at the tape and noted that he was a pure runner and wouldn’t stand and fight. If Boots & Bozy had done their homework, they would have been ready to cut off the ring better.
Boots needed to lighten up his punches to increase his accuracy because he was loading up on everything he threw, missing Chukhadzhian by a mile repeatedly, and looking bad in the process.
When you’ve got a Willie Pep-type defensive fighter like the one Boots Ennis faced, you’ve got to lighten up on your shots, or else you’re going to look like an unskilled clod, which is what you saw from Jaron throughout the contest.
Ennis says Spence may fight him now
“If they present that to us, we’ll take that too,” said coach Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis to Fighthype when asked if it would be wiser for Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis to take a fight against Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman or Yordenis Ugas rather than going straight after tougher fights against 147-lb champions Errol Spence Jr or Terence Crawford next following Boots’ less than impressive win over Karen Chukhadzhian last Saturday night. “We want to stay busy.”
“Like I always say, ‘The better my opponent, the better I’m going to be,'” said Jaron Ennis, who appears to recognize that he failed to impress in his fight against Chukhadzhian.
“Remember, he’s the #1 mandatory for Spence. If he can’t get that, we’re going to keep on moving, man,” said Bozy about Boots Ennis’ options for his next fight.
It doesn’t matter if Boots Ennis is the IBF mandatory now for Errol Spence Jr’s title because if he’s not interested in fighting him, he’ll swerve the fight by dropping the belt and head to the 154-lb division.
If Spence is going to take the match against Boots, you couldn’t think of a better time than this. After the way Ennis fought against the runner Chukhadzhian, you’ve got to think that Errol likes his chances of winning.
“You just put some words into my mouth about challenging Jermell Charlo. He [Boots Ennis] said moving up to 154. Once he clears out the 147s, then we’ll move up to 154. You just threw Jermell Charlo at us.”
“I’ll fight anybody at 147,” said Boots Ennis. “I wasn’t even paying any mind,” said Boots when asked about the booing from the fans for his fight with Chukhadzhian.
“The boos weren’t for ‘Boots. The boos were for him [Karen],'” said Bozy Ennis. “It was a little frustrating. It made me frustrated, not him. He keeps his cool.
Boots Ennis reacts to Rashidi’s loss
“Like I told you about pressure. You can come out here all strong and throw those combinations, but you can’t keep moving for all those rounds, like the guy Boots fought tonight,” said Bozy in reacting to welterweight contender Rashidi Ellis‘ surprising upset loss to Roiman Villa by a 12 round majority decision on the card.
“I don’t know what was in his [Chukhadzhian] body, but he moved all those rounds like that,” Bozy continued. “But Rashidi slowed down. I told you about that too. Pressure.
“We don’t know what’s going on right now. We’ll figure it out in a couple of weeks or in a month. Like I said, I’m going to go right back to the gym and sharpen up and get better. I don’t mind who it is,” said Boots Ennis when asked who was next for him.
“Most definitely, I feel like the co-main event [days] are over with. I feel like I’m a headliner,” said Jaron Ennis when asked if his days of being a co-feature fighter are over with now. “I feel like I got enough superstardom and fanbase big enough to be the main event and, hopefully, be the main event on pay-per-view someday,” said Ennis.