Jaron Ennis walked away with the win against old rival Karen Chukhadzhian on November 9 at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. Battling it out in front of his hometown crowd against the Ukrainian contender, “Boots” put his IBF welterweight title on the line.
As well as their first fight held last January in Washington, D.C., the rematch went the full distance. After 12 rounds, the scores were 119-107, 117-109 and 116-110, all in favor of the representative of the country-host.
In the fifth round, Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) forced Chukhadzhian (24-3, 13 KOs) to take a knee, tagging him with a left hand followed by a flurry of punches. In the 10th round referee Harvey Dock deducted a point from the challenger for holding.
In the co-feature, two-division world champion Jesse Rodriguez (21-0, 14 KOs) successfully defended his WBC super flyweight belt against former super strawweight champion Pedro Guevara (42-5-1, 22 KOs). The San Antonio southpaw dropped Mexico’s interim WBC 115-pound titleholder twice with a one-two combination and a right uppercut. The time of stoppage was 2:47 into the third round.
Among other Ennis vs Chukhadzhian 2 results, Raymond Ford (16-1-1, 8 KOs) successfully debuted at super featherweight. The former WBA 126-pound champion of Camden, NJ defeated Puerto Rico’s Orlando Gonzalez (23-3, 13 KOs) by unanimous decision, landing a pair of knockdowns along the way. After 10 rounds, the scores were 99-89, 100-88 and 100-88.
Manuel Gallegos (21-2-1, 18 KOs) upset previously unbeaten Khalil Coe (9-1-1, 7 KOs). On his way to victory by TKO, the Mexican light heavyweight dropped his opponent of Jersey City, NJ four times. Coe went down in the fifth round from a body shot, and in the seventh and eighth rounds from a series of punches. The referee called it a day at 7 seconds into the ninth round, after Gallegos dominated Coe with another barrage of strikes.
Kicking off the main card, Austin Williams (17-1, 12 KOs) of Milwaukee, Wisconsin TKO’d Gian Garrido (11-2, 8 KOs) of Flushing, Queens, NY with a barrage of punches at middleweight. The referee waved the fight off at 1:04 into the fifth round.
Among the prelims, Philadelphia’s Ismail Muhammad (6-0, 3 KOs) defeated Nelson Morales (5-19, 2 KOs) of the Dominican Republic by unanimous decision. After six rounds at welterweight, the scores were 40-36 across the board.
As well, Newark’s Zaquin Moses (1-0) successfully debuted as a pro against Michael Ruiz (1-5) of Toms River, NJ. After four rounds at super featherweight, all three scores were 40-36.
In the event opener, Dennis Thompson (3-0, 2 KOs) TKO’d Edgar Ortiz Jr (8-6-2, 4 KOs) of Los Angeles. The super bantamweight bout was stopped at 2:59 into the second round, following a series of unanswered punches from the local southpaw.