This Saturday, at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, the talented and spectacular American boxer Jaron “Boots” Ennis (31-0-0, 28 KOs) will defend the IBF welterweight world title against the Armenian challenger David “Ava” Avanesyan (30-4-1, 18 KOs). This will be Ennis’s first title defense, granted to him by default after the previous titleholder, Terence Crawford, decided to move up to super welterweight.
Jaron Ennis: The New Roy Jones?
It is quite rare for a boxer to dominate every single moment of every single fight. Usually, even the greatest champions occasionally concede some rounds to their opponent, sometimes to study their style, sometimes to catch their breath, or sometimes to tire them out before picking up the pace again. What is astonishing about Jaron Ennis’s professional career so far is his ability to remain dominant at all times, making it hard to pinpoint a single round, out of the 101 rounds he has fought to date, that he clearly lost. One aspect that helps Boots shine against any type of opponent is his ability to switch styles as needed: Ennis can elegantly dance around his rival, allow them to take the initiative only to counter them, or plant his feet and exchange ferociously in open combat. The mix of power and speed displayed in his 31 fights brings to mind the feats of a young Roy Jones Jr.: a challenging and premature comparison, but the fact that many observers even consider it speaks volumes about the high expectations for Jaron Ennis’s future.
David Avanesyan: A Warrior Who Sometimes Cannot Afford His Courage
The Armenian challenger has shown countless times in his career his true warrior spirit. A born attacker, Avanesyan always seeks to conquer the center of the ring and engage in battle, regardless of the prestige, qualities, or characteristics of his opponent. This proactive attitude has allowed him to achieve some significant satisfactions, some of which came on the road, in front of a hostile audience. Particularly noteworthy were the two KOs inflicted in Bilbao on the dangerous Spanish puncher Kerman Lejarraga, who was unbeaten before encountering the Armenian, but not less thrilling was the victory inside the distance against Englishman Josh Kelly at Wembley Arena. However, always trying to resolve everything with brute force has also led Avanesyan to some heavy defeats when he faced tougher boxers. The last to deliver him a devastating KO was the outstanding Terence Crawford, but that defeat remains, according to the Armenian and not only him, rather controversial due to the condition of Crawford’s gloves, visibly damaged at the time of the KO.
What Will Happen? Boxe Punch’s Prediction!
As already happened when he faced the Lithuanian Edidijus Kavaliauskas and the aforementioned Crawford, Avanesyan is about to face a boxer against whom it seems highly inadvisable to go on the offensive. However, as the saying goes, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”: used to exerting relentless pressure to implement his characteristic bodywork and gradually break down his opponents’ resistance, the challenger will likely try to follow his favorite script this time as well, apparently not having a sufficiently valid Plan B to propose. Given Ennis’s considerable advantage in terms of power, durability, and reflexes, Avanesyan will likely face a massacre, allowing the champion to showcase his entire repertoire without having to move much from the center of the ring. Although the final outcome of the fight seems already written, it will be interesting to see how many rounds and how many punches it will take Jaron Ennis to KO the brave challenger. Both Kavaliauskas and Crawford managed to do it in the sixth round, and it’s not unreasonable to think that Ennis wants to prove to the world that he has superior skills compared to his illustrious predecessors. My feeling is that we will witness an intense fight from the very beginning, with no study phases, and a reckless and resolute Ennis inflicting increasing damage to his rival before finding the winning combination before the halfway mark. Therefore, I predict a win by Jaron Ennis inside the distance between the third and fifth round.