Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis defends the welterweight belt against his IBF mandatory Karen Chukhadzhian in a rematch on November 9th at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. The event will be shown live on DAZN.
In the Chief support bout, WBC super flyweight champion Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez defends against interim champ Pedro Guevara.
Ennis (32-0, 29 KOs) already beat Chukhadzhian (24-2, 13 KOs) by a 12-round unanimous decision on January 7th last year in a battle for the vacant IBF interim welterweight title in Washington, D.C. The scores were 120-108 x 3. The fight resembled a big cat chasing a mouse around the ring for 12 boring rounds.
Chukhadzhian made Ennis look bad at times by using movement to evade his punches, but he failed to do much on offense to take advantage of Boots’ inability to cut off the ring. The rematch will likely be the same type of fight because Chukhadzhian doesn’t possess the power to stand and fight Ennis.
“I’m excited to be back headlining in my city again,” said Ennis. “I’m ready to continue dominating the division, making a big statement, and showing everyone why I’m the best Welterweight in the world.”
For Ennis to get the fights he wants, he’ll need to count on his promoter, Eddie Hearn, to raise the money to encourage reluctant fighters to face him.
Hearn expected it to be easier for him to get fighters to jump at the chance of fighting Ennis when he signed the Philadelphia native. He didn’t take into account that they would want good money.
Chukhadzhian has since rebounded with several wins over second-tier opposition. Given the low-level fighters that he’s beaten, it’s unclear why the International Boxing Federation has made Chukhadzhian mandatory for Boots’ welterweight title.
It’s another reason the fighters and their promoters must phase out all four sanctioning bodies. They need to be replaced by one governing body that makes logical choices when selecting mandatories.
Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez (20-0, 13 KOs) is making his first defense of his WBC super featherweight title against Guevara (42-4-1 22 KOs). It’s not the fight Bam would have wanted, but it’s the one he’s stuck with.
He wanted to begin unifying the super flyweight division after capturing the WBC belt last June with a seventh-round knockout of champion Juan Francisco Estrada.
“On November 9, tune in to DAZN, get your tickets, and witness another exciting performance,” said Rodriguez. “My belts aren’t going anywhere! And still!”
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