Photo - Amanda Westcott//Matchroom Boxing
Philadelphia's IBF welterweight champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis (32-0 29 KOs) defends his title tomorrown night against Karen Chukhadzhian (24-2 13 KOs) in a rematch taking place in Ennis's hometown at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, live on DAZN. The two met back in January of 2023 as Ennis pulled of the decision victory and win the IBF welterweight title.
“In the first fight with Chukhadzhian,” said Ennis. “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.
“Once I got back to having fun, you could see afterwards I was having my fun and when I do that, the stoppages come, don’t look for it. So, it was nothing about him, he’s got nothing I’ve not seen before, it’s all about me. I just thought ‘I’m going to knock this guy out’, you can’t go in there like that, you have to listen to the game plan, but I didn’t do that. So that performance is all on me, nothing to do with him. What I did from the seventh to the 12th rounds is what I should have done from the start, jabbing to the body, and every time I did cut him off, I was rushing my work. There’s a lot of things from that fight - but I’ve learned, and that’s what matters.
“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.
“I think you’ve only seen 35-40 per cent of me so far for real, for real, I haven’t had to go into my bag to do anything yet. 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 be an all-time legend, one of the best ever to do it. I don’t feel that I really have to prove anything, I’m just doing what I need to do for myself, my family and my legacy. I don’t have to prove anything to anyone.
“I want to unify and collect the belts, but it’s OK, 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 OK.
“It’s out of my hands, I did the best that I could behind the scenes to make the fights happen, but it’s OK, 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 147lbs division. They know what comes with that.
“I’m tired of talking about Crawford. 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.”
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