Jaron Ennis had an ideal homecoming when he returned to Philadelphia to make a first defence of his IBF welterweight title back in July, but the undefeated champion struggled to emulate that success last night, where Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez stole the show.
News that ‘Boots’ and ‘Bam’ would fight on the same card was music to the ears of the boxing purists, with both men expected to carve out long successful careers in the sport and add to their already impressive accolades in years to come.
Rodriguez (20-0) was up first and the debate for much of fight week was whether the 24-year-old had already earnt a future place in the hall-of-fame despite his young age, boasting knockout wins over both Sunny Edwards and Juan Francisco Estrada within the last twelve months – neither have which had been stopped prior.
Once again, the WBC super-flyweight champion was tasked with an opponent who had never been defeated inside of the distance as he faced his mandatory challenger, former light-flyweight world champion Pedro Guevara (42-4-1).
From the opening round, it was clear to see that Rodriguez was looking to halt the Mexican, cutting off the ring effortlessly and switching stances to repeatedly land the rear uppercut at will with both hands.
Although he appeared happy to take one, Rodriguez obviously backed his punch power against that of the one-time 108lber and in the third-round his theory was proved correct as he sent the challenger tumbling with a straight left-hand after walking Guevara down into the corner.
With 30 seconds of the round remaining on the clock, Rodriguez only needed 15 to display his tremendous killer instinct and set his opponent up for a rear uppercut once again – this one exploding onto the chin of Guevara and laying him out on the canvas, unable to rise to his feet.
Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez Becomes The First Man To Stop Pedro Guevara. Bam Now 21-0 (14 KOs). #EnnisChukhadzhian#RodriguezGuevarapic.twitter.com/6ZT2DT10eY
— B (@BS12OO) November 10, 2024
That artistic brilliance was always going to be a tough act to follow for Jaron Ennis (32-0), but the fact that he had previously whitewashed IBF mandatory challenger Karen Chukhadzhian (24-2) had fans hoping that an improved performance and a knockout win.
However, it was the Ukrainian who looked to have learnt from his mistakes and was able to take the first-round by adopting a more aggressive approach than he did in his much-criticized first encounter with Ennis.
‘Boots’ was able to grow into the fight but was still getting tagged far too regularly than he would have expected from the 20/1 underdog, until the challenger was forced to drop to his knees and take a count from referee Harvey Dock in the fifth-round after sustained pressure from the hometown hero.
Jaron boots Ennis with the 5th round knock down 😮💨🥊🥊#boxing#EnnisChukhadzhian2
pic.twitter.com/zKMQbIRgO8— mr.meqo (@mrmeqo) November 10, 2024
Still, Chukhadzhian was able to have his moments in an otherwise dull affair, that was generously scored in Ennis’ favour, a late point deduction for the Kiev-born contender seemingly ruling out any chance of an upset in the eyes of fans but eventually proving meaningless on the judges’ scorecards.
The underwhelming display from Ennis has led to questions as to whether it is time to move on from his dream of unifying the 147lb division and move up to a more comfortable weight of 154lbs – where high-profile opposition awaits.
However, if he is as easy to hit at super-welterweight than he was against Chukhadzhian then Ennis may be made to pay for his defensive mistakes.
Elsewhere on the card, both Raymond Ford (15-1-1) and Austin Williams (16-1) were able to get back to winning ways after suffering their first career defeats in their last outings, whilst Khalil Coe (9-0-1) fell victim to one of the upsets of the year as he was knocked out by Mexico’s Manuel Gallegos (21-2-1).
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