Jaron Ennis retained his IBF welterweight title with a unanimous decision victory in his rematch with Karen Chukhadzhian, then admitted that his days at 147 pounds could be numbered.
Ennis send Chukhadzhian down to one knee in the fifth round and the Ukrainian challenger picked up a point deduction for holding in the 10th as Ennis cruised to a landslide win on the scorecards, with the judges scoring it to “Boots” 119-107, 117-109, 116-110.
It meant that Ennis successfully defended the full version of the IBF title for the second time as he followed up on his fifth-round stoppage of David Avanesyan in July with a second successive victory at the Wells Fargo Center in his home town of Philadelphia.
Despite claiming his second victory over Chukhadzhian – who he defeated to win the interim IBF title back in January 2023 – Ennis said that he wasn’t overly happy with his performance, and said the time may have come for him to make the move up to 154 pounds.
“It was OK,” he told Chris Mannix of DAZN after his win.
“I don’t know, man. I think it might be time to go to ’54.
“I felt good. But I feel like at ’54 I’ll be way better and my pop is gonna be how it’s supposed to be. I’m getting older now. I’m 27. I’ll be 28 next year.”
Ennis didn’t completely rule out further fights at 147 pounds, but said that if he’s going to continue at welterweight, he needs his next opponents to be the biggest names in the division in order to keep his motivation up.
“Right now, it’s probably the bigger names, you know,” he explained.
“If you fight bottom-tier guys, sometimes you don’t want to get up for them. But I know if I fight a way better guy, I’m be crazy. You know, I’m gonna be on point. That’s what’s gonna make me better. I’m not saying he’s a bad fighter or anything, but I need them top guys.
“If we can get one of these (top) guys and stop playing, yeah, let’s make it happen. But if not, ’54 here I come.”
And if he does make that move up to super welterweight, Ennis is ready to jump straight in with the division’s big names in a bid to add more world championship belts to his collection.
“(I’ll fight) Anybody at 154 anybody with a name, you know?” he said.
“Like I said, I want to fight the top guys, the best guys. I want to be great. I want to be an all-time great. That’s what you’ve gotta do to fight these guys. You’ve got to put yourself out there.”
