Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis needs to find a way to make his rematch with IBF mandatory Karen Chukhadzhian more exciting for the fans on November 9th. They’re expecting a similar dull fight to their previous one a year ago, and they’re not looking forward to this.
Ennis (32-0, 29 KOs) looked like he had two left feet in his fight against Chukhadzhian (24-2, 13 KOs) on January 7th in Washington, D.C. He was trying to knock out the crafty fighter and missing with wild shots. Chukhadzhian does well against sluggers. He didn’t win, but he succeeded in making Ennis look clueless.
IBF welterweight champion Ennis will fight in front of his home crowd on November 9th at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. The fight will be shown live on DAZN. Boots says he will “have fun,” but he voiced similar comments before his last fight against David Avanesyan on July 13th. He didn’t look good in that fight, either.
“There’s more risk for Boots Ennis. This fight is like seeing a Hollywood bomb and then saying, ‘Let’s pour more money into a sequel,’” said Chris Mannix to DAZN Boxing about the rematch between Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis and Karen Chukhadzhian on November 9th.
Ennis has no choice but to take the rematch because Chukhadzhian worked his way into the IBF mandatory spot position, winning three fights since his January loss last year.
Boots could have avoided fighting Chukhadzhian again only if his promoter, Eddie Hearn, had negotiated the unification fight with WBO champion Brian Norman Jr. or if Ennis had vacated.
Hearn failed to negotiate the fight with Norman because he wanted $2.2 million, and Eddie wasn’t going to sweeten the deal from the $1.7 million he offered.
“That’s the anticipation for this fight being awful is frankly at an all time high. Boots Ennis needs to find a way to compound those expectations. He’s got a great stablemate who can help him with a mover, and that’s Andy Cruz.
“I saw Michael Mckinson in his training camp as well. That’s another guy that’s going to move around in that gym,” said Mannix about Ennis having Cruz and Mckinson to help him prepare for the highly mobile Chukhadzhian.
Even with lightweight contender Andy Cruz and welterweight mover Michael McKinson helping Ennis prepare for Chukhadzhian’s mobility, it will be difficult to cut off the ring to land his power shots.
This guy is even more of a mover than those two. The Cuban Cruz is a fighter who stands in front of his opponents and makes them miss with reflexes and by leaning away from shots.
Chukhadzhian moves around the ring, and it’s almost impossible to catch him. It would be bad for Ennis’s career if he turned in another poor performance against Karen, as he did last year.
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