By Allan Fox: Karen Chukhadzhian acknowledges that Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis punches VERY hard and that he had him hurt in the tenth round after he was nailed by a body shot from the unbeaten welterweight contender.
Chukhadzhian (21-2, 11 KOs) says he thinks that ‘Boots’ Ennis will have a better chance of beating IBF, WBA & WBC 147-lb champion Spence than WBO champion Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford because Errol is more likely to trade shots.
Ennis (30-0, 27 KOs) had problems with the movement and the defensive skills of Chukhadzhian in their fight on January 7th at the Capitol One Arena in Washington, D.C.
Boots Ennis still won the fight by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision by the scores 120-108, 120-108, and 120-108, but he wasn’t impressive with the way he struggled.
Chukhadzhian made Ennis look bad with his movement & counterpunching, exposing his lack of ability to cut off the ring against a mover.
What was made clear was that Boots Ennis was ill-prepared for the style of Chukhadzhian, and you can blame that on his trainer because he admitted during the build-up to the fight that he hadn’t watched tape of his opponent.
“Of course, I take this fight because I want to win this fight, but I lost,” said Karen Chukhadzhian to Fighthype about his clash against Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis on January 7th on Showtime PPV.
“It’s a big experience, but a loss is a loss. Yes, he hits very, very hard. I feel some punches. He hit me several times in the head. I wasn’t stunned, but I feel this punch in the head. In round ten, he catch me to the body. I feel that.
“When you fight someone with so hard punch, you don’t want to stop, even when he hurts you. The important thing you can do is not stop your legs because that’s what he wants from you.
“I think Jaron Ennis has more of a chance against Errol Spence because Spence likes to in-fight. Crawford will be harder for Jaron than Spence,” said Chukhadzhian.
“It’ll be very interesting to see this fight. I hope this fight will someday happen, and I will see.
“Next, I want to fight the strongest, and I hope this is not my last fight in the USA. Also, we have a lot to do in the gym to delete all our mistakes because in my next fight, I want to show not only my defense, but more attacks to show people I can do more and be more interesting to them,” said Chukhadzhian.