Welterweight IBF world interim champion Jaron Ennis came out victorious in stupendous fashion after knocking out Colombian fighter Roiman Villa in the 10th round. His win culminated in the first defense of his IBF title as he awaits his opportunity for a genuine world title challenge. The match between Ennis and Villa were held at the The Ballroom venue in Atlantic City, New Jersey on June 8th.
Roiman Villa (26-2, 24 KO’s) was a good competitor but was no match for the skills and power of Jaron Ennis (31-0, 28 KO’s). Following Villa’s win over one of America’s best Welterweight prospects in Rashidi Ellis (24-1, 15 KO’s), Roiman Villa rightfully deserved an opportunity to face IBF interim champion Jaron Ennis. Defeating Ennis would have made Villa the IBF interim champion and allowed him the opportunity to face the holder of the IBF title sometime in the future.
However, Jaron Ennis foiled whatever plans Roiman Villa may have had at becoming a world champion during their July 8th fight. Villa looked one-dimensional as he waded forward as much as possible to damage Ennis up close. Ennis however, seemed thoroughly prepared for what Villa had to face and the Colombian failed to pass through Jaron Ennis’ defense.
Jaron Ennis’ offense would take front and center, however, during the match as he consistently weakened Roiman Villa throughout the match. His body shots, particularly, proved effective later on. There were moments were Ennis’ concentration slipped and Villa landed some hard and damaging punches himself, but the American Welterweight proved his toughness and resilience by taking Villa’s shots.
By the 10th round, Villa had noticeably been losing the majority of exchanges and was not mustering up enough defense to stop Ennis’ shots who was also gaining momentum. By the latter half of the round, Villa again lost an exchange between him and Ennis; which proved to be fatal as he was subsequently knocked down hard by several hooks from the American and Jaron Ennis was immediately ruled the winner by knockout after Villa failed to get up and the referee was forced to stop the fight.
Ennis completed a successful route of a worthy contender and is already looking ahead at the winner of Errol Spence Jr. versus Terence Crawford. The two Welterweight champions are scheduled to clash roughly two weeks from now on July 29th with the winner to end up as undisputed.
“Hopefully we get these these top guys, you know. Bud (Terence Crawford), Errol Spence, Keith Thurman…” Jaron Ennis stated following his match against Roiman Villa.
The July 8th fight card also witnessed an upset as Cuban Middleweight Yoelvis Gomez (6-1, 5 KO’s) lost by unanimous decision against American Marquis Taylor (15-1-2, 1 KO’s). Gomez, a decorated Cuban amateur, was expected to win easily against the relatively-unknown Taylor, but the Cuban failed to impress as he lost over the course of 10 rounds.
Lightweight contender, Dominican Edwin De Los Santos (16-1, 14 KO’s), continued his winning form after defeating opponent Joseph Adorno (17-3-2, 14 KO’s) by unanimous decision in a 10-round bout.
In summary, Jaron Ennis made good on his reputation as a future world champion with his headlining performance against Roiman Villa. Most notably, his win over Villa has perhaps proven he is a level above fellow Welterweight Rashidi Ellis who had been deemed to be on a similar level as to Ennis.
Though Ennis has retained his IBF interim title, a fight with the winner of Spence vs. Crawford is not an entirely realistic prospect. It has been rumored that both fighters might move up to 154 lbs after their fight, if a rematch doesn’t follow after their June 29th bout. At the very least, Ennis looks to be the best contender in the division; especially after Eimantas Stanionis (14-0, 9 KO’s) and Vergil Ortiz Jr. (19-0, 19 KO’s) have as of yet not been able to prove anything noteworthy in the past year following multiple delays. As a result, Ennis now stands as the most viable contender to the world title holders in the Welterweight division.
