Jaron Ennis admitted that he kind of found it difficult to get up for fighting Karen Chukhadzhian two times in over a year's period.
Despite having a harder time with the rugged Ukrainian in their rematch Saturday night, Ennis was still able to deliver a comfortable unanimous decision to defend his IBF welterweight title in front of his home crowd at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and live on DAZN.
Though Chukhadzhian came out way more aggressively than he did in their first meeting in January 2023, Ennis quickly made adjustments and detonated a clubbing left hook to wobble the challenger before a barrage of punches forced him to take a knee in the fifth round.
Chukhadzhian did land shots on "Boots" way more than he did during their original clash, but Ennis still exhibited enough slipping on defense where his challenger's output didn't become too much of a problem. Ennis also banked rounds by walking the Ukrainian down, peppering him with enough shots to build upon his lead to victory, though Chukhadzhian refused to let the champ stay in rhythm by landing pesky, sneaky shots on the Philly fighter. Ennis was also aided in another 10-8 round for the 10th as the referee docked a point from Chukhadzhian due to excessive holding.
Ennis told DAZN that his performance was just "OK," expressing conflicted feelings on whether to stay at welterweight or move up to 154 pounds.
Prior to the main event, Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez blasted Pedro Guevara with an electric third-round knockout.
Here's how the entire Ennis-Chukhadzhian main card went.