Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis has another homecoming, and this time, it is against a familiar foe as he defends his IBF World welterweight title against Karen Chukhadzhian on Saturday night (November 9) at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
The Philly native steps back through the ropes in his hometown arena for the second time following a spectacular homecoming night in July, where he forced David Avanesyan to retire after five rounds in the first defense of his title.
The 27-year-old’s clash with mandatory challenger Chukhadzhian (24-2 13 KOs) will be a rematch of their fight in January 2023, where Boots pitched a shutout in Washington DC, but since that loss, Chukhadzhian has notched three wins since then to move into the mandatory position for Ennis’ belt.
Ennis believes he had the wrong approach in the first fight against Chukhadzhian.
“In the first fight with Chukhadzhian,” Ennis said. “It was just me getting away from having fun. My mindset was just knockout, knockout, knockout. You can’t go into a fight like that, and I never usually do, I just go in, have my fun and put on a show. But that whole training camp, I wasn’t enjoying it, I was just thinking ‘I’m here to hurt everybody’ and that’s how I was in the gym, and it wasn’t good…
“The key to success is just having fun, that’s it. You have to listen, stay behind the jab and things like that, but the main key is having fun – if you do that, it makes camp better, the fights better, everything, it just flows.”
At this stage of his career, Ennis thinks that boxing has only seen a small portion of what he has to give.
“I think you’ve only seen 35-40 percent of me so far for real, for real, I haven’t had to go into my bag to do anything yet,” Ennis said. “When the opposition gets better, I think it brings more out of you, but who knows, just because a guy is good, it doesn’t mean he’s going to do anything towards me; I might beat him easy…
“I want to unify and collect the belts, but we’re staying busy, and we’re dealing with the mandatory, and that’s going to keep me rolling, keep my name out there, keep my skills and talent going up, so everything is okay.”
Ennis wants the big names at 147 pounds, including all the champions in the welterweight division, but he doesn’t think those champions want to fight him.
“It’s out of my hands,” he said. “I did the best that I could behind the scenes to make the fights happen, but it’s okay; we’re going to meet these guys. I think they are lacking confidence, they don’t believe in themselves, because they know what’s in front of them, that Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis is in front of them, a different type of monster, a different type of beast, the king of the 147-pound division. They know what comes with that.”
If he can’t get the top fighters in the welterweight division, Ennis could move up to 154 pounds, where a big fight against WBO 154-pound champion Terence Crawford could happen. However, while ‘Boots’ wants Crawford, he is not focused on him.
“I’m tired of talking about Crawford,” Ennis said. “I’ve been trying to get that fight but I don’t worry about that now, we’re tried multiple times. They don’t want the fight, so people need to go and ask them. I’ve tried, but I don’t care anymore; he’s chasing who he’s chasing; I’m focusing on what I’ve got going on right now – but it’s always going to be ‘yes’ on my side.
“Everyone wants to see it, but I get tired of talking about it because right now it doesn’t look realistic as he’s calling out Canelo and stuff like that, so it is what it is. I’ll fight anyone, anywhere; it doesn’t matter to me.”
Prediction: Ennis defeats Chukhadzhian by TKO in the seventh round.
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