Ennis vs. Chukhadzian 2 Preview
The Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania will host two dynamic title fights on Saturday, November 9th. IBF welterweight champion Jaron Ennis will defend his belt against Karen Chukhadzian. The two previously fought for the vacant interim IBF title in 2023 where Ennis won via unanimous decision.
Ennis (32-0-1, 29 KO) defended the interim belt once and then was promoted to regular champion and successfully defended the title in his last fight with a fifth round TKO of David Avanesyan in July. While he did win convincingly in the first fight with Chukhadzian, the pundits were questioning Ennis for not being able to finish the fight, the first time he had gone the distance in six years.
Chukhadzian won three straight fights against lesser competition after losing to Ennis and was named a mandatory challenger to the IBF belt. If Ennis would have declined he would have been stripped of the title. The champion commented.
“Vacating the belt wasn't a thought in my mind. I was just staying in the gym, staying focused and doing what I needed to do to get better. I wasn't worried about what was going on in the outside. I let my team handle all of that. I want to stay busy and collect the rest of these belts. If they are playing around, maybe we'll be at 154 pounds, maybe not. We'll see,” Ennis said.
It has been known that Ennis has been wanting a unification fight for years now, and he confirmed that notion. “I've been chasing everybody. I've been chasing Terence Crawford, Errol Spence Jnr, Keith Thurman – I've been chasing all of these guys. Ask Crawford. Ask them.”
“That weight is poppin' right now. Everybody up there. Hopefully you might see me up there. You never know. They are all great fighters, but I really can't pick who's the best.”
“Hopefully these guys will step up and sign on the dotted line. These are the fights everybody wants to see,” he said.
The champion is excited to be defending the belt on his home turf of Philadelphia. “It’s phenomenal and a blessing to be fighting at the Wells Fargo Center. The whole card is crazy from top to bottom, with one of the pound-for-pound greats in Rodriguez, contenders and prospects. It's going to be a great show and filled with fireworks. It's great for boxing when you have two of the top guys on the same card. Bam and I together will make it a powerful night, bringing both of our fan bases together. We're going to have a good time,” said Ennis.
Ennis has key wins over Thomas Dulorme, Sergey Lipinets and Chris van Heerden. A convincing win in this fight will silence his critics and solidify his position to fight for a unified title. The 27-year-old will need to find a way to utilize his power early in the fight and push Chukhadzian to the brink, something he did not do in the first fight.
The co-main event of the evening will be for the WBC junior bantamweight title as champion Jesse Rodriguez will defend the belt against interim champion Pedro Guevara.
Rodriguez (20-0, 13 KO) is a two-time WBC super flyweight champion and is defending the belt for the first time under his second reign. He is also a former unified WBO and IBF flyweight champion. He talked about his opponent on Saturday.
"Really, I have to watch out for everything," Rodriguez said. "He has nothing to lose and everything to gain. This is an opportunity for him to change his life and his career so I know he is going to come 100%. He is going to take what I have but I am at the top of my game right now and I really don't see anyone beating me anytime soon."
Rodriguez scored the biggest win of his career in his last fight where shocked legend Juan Francisco Estrada by seventh round KO. The 24-year-old has plans on fighting more legends such Roman Gonzalez and Naoya Inoue but he cannot look past a fighter who like he stated, has nothing to lose.
Guevara (42-4-1, 20 KO) has won two straight fights and most recently defeated Andrew Moloney to become interim champion. The 35-year-old has only lost two fights since 2017 and he is a former WBC junior bantamweight champion winning the belt in 2014. The Mexican fighter defended the belt twice before losing it by split decision to You Kimura.
Of his four losses, all have come by decision and three of those by split decision. Guevara has proven he still has plenty of fight left in him and he has the chance to reign on a young champions parade by shocking the world on Saturday.
