Jaron Ennis confidently defended his IBF welterweight world title – but was unable to shine.
Jaron Ennis (33-0, 29 knockouts) remains IBF welterweight world champion. He was no stranger to his opponent Karen Chukhadzhian (24-3, 13 knockouts): He had already defeated the Ukrainian clearly on points in January of last year. This time, Chukhadzhian was much more aggressive and sold himself better overall than in the first encounter. However, the result was ultimately the same. In the first round, he surprised the champion with a hard left that really shook him up. However, the world champion adapted relatively quickly to his opponent’s tactics. From then on, he kept dodging cleverly and robbed the Ukrainian of a lot of strength. Ennis himself was patient and landed the necessary punches, but without really shining.
In the fifth round, he pushed Chukhadzhian into the corner and covered him with body shots. The seemingly defenceless challenger went down and was counted out by referee Harvey Dock. It was to remain the only knockdown. The challenger continued to try and throw Jaron Ennis off his rhythm, but was unable to land enough punches. He was also deducted a point in the tenth round for holding. In the end, Ennis came away with an unchallenged but unspectacular points victory in front of his home crowd: 119:107, 117:109, 116:110.
Text by Marcus Holzer