Jaron Ennis completed the introductory defense of his IBF world title against David Avanesyan on Saturday, July 13th, in his hometown of Philadelphia at the Wells Fargo Center. Additionally, the middleweight title bout between Janibek Alimkhanuly and Andrei Mikhailovich was unfortunately cancelled after the former could no longer compete due to the dehydration he suffered.

Jaron Ennis Vs. David Avanesyan

American IBF welterweight (147 lbs) champion Jaron “Boots” Ennis (32-0, 29 KO’s) maintained both his undefeated record and his title in an easy rout over Armenian-Russian contender David Avanesyan (30-5-1, 18 KO’s), very much living up to the pre-match expectations of a dominant win for Ennis.

Avanesyan surprised in the earlier rounds, taking a bold front-foot approach as he pressured Jaron Ennis, which forced the American champion to sharpen both his defense and offense to derail the Armenian contender. Being the younger, and therefore fitter, as well as the more powerful, Ennis stood strong against Avanesyan’s defense as he retaliated with almost double the punches he received.

The latter 2 rounds [4th and 5th] saw Avanesyan’s stamina sharply decline as Ennis’ punches started to affect Avanesyan, eventually allowing Jaron Ennis to fully take control and dominate the match―culminating in a 5th round knockdown for Ennis.

By the time of the end of the 5th round, the match was stopped after it became clear that Avanesyan could no longer continue, marking Ennis’ first successful defense of a world title and arguably legitimizing his hold over the IBF title which he attained after being elevated from interim champion to world champion.

With his victory complete, the post-match press conference held in the wake of the fight naturally went on to discuss the next possibilities for Jaron Ennis, with Matchroom chairman and Ennis’ promoter Eddie Hearn asserting that Ennis would first seek to become undisputed at 147 lbs.

“The number one priority is [for Jaron Ennis] to unify the division, because he’s going to move to 154 [lbs] at some point, but [you] don’t really want to go [there] before you’ve taken care of business. I [ was asked] during conversations with His Excellency [Turki Al-Sheikh], ‘Do you think Boots will fight [Terence Crawford]?’. I said, ‘Yeah, send the contract’.

“So, that’s for next year, but I said to His Excellency, ‘We’re going to fight in October or November. Maybe if you want, we’ll go co-main event on Bivol-Beterbiev, in October out there [in Saudi Arabia], or we can come out here [in Philadelphia]’. But I’ll tell you what, I have thought about it [the Crawford-Ennis fight]. I mean, him [Ennis] versus Crawford at the Ball Park [Arena], that’s got me really excited.”

Eddie Hearn

According to Hearn’s statements, a match with former undisputed 147 lbs champion Terence Crawford (40-0, 31 KO’s) could be on the cards for next year, though that potential bout will be preceded by Ennis fighting in October or November, potentially in a unification bout with American WBC champion Mario Barrios (29-2, 18 KO’s) or any other welterweight champion that might attain a world title at 147 lbs by that time.

Ennis’ next fight could possibly take place on the undercard of the light-heavyweight (175 lbs) undisputed bout between Artur Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KO’s) and Dmitry Bivol (23-0, 12 KO’s)―which is set to be rescheduled sometime this year after their original July 1st bout was canceled.

Notably, Hearn decided to push a narrative that Ennis first perpetrated last year when he asserted Crawford needed to “send a contract”, despite Crawford having then been a free agent while in the midst of an obligation to rematch Errol Spence Jr.

The prompting by Ennis and Hearn for Crawford to send a contract is steeped in disingenuity, with Crawford still not confirmed to have signed to any promotion for him to be able to send any sort of contract. Like most fighters in the sport, Crawford does not operate under his own promotion and would need to rely on an actual promotional company to draft and send his contracts.

While Crawford has signed on to fight Israil Madrimov (10-0-1, 7 KO’s) on August 3rd and appears to have some sort of business relationship with General Entertainment Authority (GEA) chairman Turki Al-Alshikh, who has sponsored multiple notable events over the past two years, Crawford is still not in the position to send an actual bout contract to Ennis.

As a fighter that has not only just completed his first title defense, it is also resoundingly clear that it is Ennis―who is backed by an actual promotion in Matchroom―who must make the effort to seek a fight with Crawford rather than vice-versa. This is a normal practice in boxing, as fighters with a lesser reputation or lesser accomplishments usually endeavor to try a more reputable fighter.

This is further evident through Crawford’s own attempts to fight Canelo Alvarez (61-2-2, 39 KO’s), having meticulously and consistently called Alvarez out to plead his case for a fight, which is now a possibility after Alvarez recently confirmed to have some interest in fighting Crawford.

Undercard results

• Australian WBC featherweight (126 lbs) champion Skye Nicolson (11-0, 1 KO’s) defeated Dominican challenger Dyana Vargas (19-2, 12 KO’s) by a dominant unanimous decision (UD). All three judges scored the fight as 100-90 in favor of Nicolson.
  
• American welterweight prospect Jalil Hackett (9-0, 7 KO’s) maintained his unbeaten record in a UD win over countryman Peter Dobson (16-2, 9 KO’s). The judges’ scorecards pertaining to this fight were: 97-93, 97-93 and 96-94.

Raymond Muratalla Vs. Tevin Farmer

The Top Rank-organized main event between Kazakhstani unified [WBO & IBF] middleweight (160 lbs) champion Janibek Alimkhanuly (15-0, 10 KO’s) and New Zealand challenger Andrei Mikhailovich (21-0, 13 KO’s) was cancelled after Alimkhanuly was sent to the hospital on Thursday evening, July 11th, after he was discovered to have been severely dehydrated―which would leave the Kazakhstani fighter unable to compete on Saturday, July 13th.

As a result, the 10-round lightweight (135 lbs) title bout between Americans Raymond Muratalla (21-0, 16 KO’s) and Tevin Farmer (33-6-1, 8 KO’s) was moved up to headline the Top Rank card. As has been common in boxing for the past couple of years, controversy naturally took its course following the match after Muratalla was announced the winner by UD through scorecards of 95-94, 97-92 and 96-93.

Muratalla, who went on to successfully defend his NABF and WBO-NABO titles against Farmer, had seemingly outpointed Farmer according to the judges, but the CompuBox’s punch stats have added controversy to the result due to the highly-competitive nature of their match.

On paper, Farmer looked to be the more efficient fighter, having thrown only thirty punches less than Muratalla yet proven to be the more efficient fighter when it comes to overall punches landed, as well as power punches landed.

The fight itself was as close as the stats indicate, with neither Muratalla nor Farmer thoroughly distinguishing themselves as the clear winner which would have made a decision draw a more fitting result for both of them.

The point of contention lies within the scorecards itself, with the 95-94 judge’s scorecard in favor of Muratalla accurately depicting the match rather than the other two scorecards [97-92, 96-93]. Regardless of Muratalla being designated the winner, boxing’s lack of any oversight body over officials, including referees and judges, has put a stain on their lightweight title bout.