On Saturday, July 13, Jaron “Boots” Ennis stopped David Avanesyan after five rounds to retain his IBF Welterweight Championship. The 27-year-old worked the challenger to the body repeatedly, seemingly landing at will and knocking him down in the fifth round. With the win, Ennis improves his professional record 32-0 with one no contest.
Ennis, a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, earned his latest victory in front more than 15,000 hometown fans at the Wells Fargo Center. It’s his first win in the City of Brotherly Love since 2018, but things have changed a bit in the last six years. Not only did Ennis retain his newly-acquired world title, but he also set himself up for future fights with fellow welterweight champions Mario Barrios, Eimantas Stanionis and Brian Norman Jr. However, he wants the one champion who may have left the division entirely — Terence Crawford.
“Look, Crawford [is] a brilliant fighter. I’m sure he’s not afraid of him and I’m sure he believes he beats Jaron Ennis, but [there’s] also [his trainer Brian “BoMac” McIntyre]. They’re also incredibly knowledgeable boxing people and they know how good Ennis is,” the IBF Welterweight Champion’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, said.
“I think that’s the toughest fight out there for him and I don’t think they’ll be queuing up for it, but once the demand is there and once someone like his excellency says, ‘I want to make that fight.’ I’m sure they’ll take the fight.”
Crawford is set to make his debut at super welterweight on August 3 against WBA Super Welterweight Champion Israil Madrimov. However, he has expressed an interest in moving up to super middleweight to challenge Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in the near future, not staying in the division or moving back down to fight Ennis.
