Jaron Ennis wanted that particular second. On Saturday evening in Atlantic Metropolis, he seized it with each fists.
The 27-year-old welterweight from Philadelphia, nicknamed Boots, systematically broke down Eimantas Stanionis with precision and power en path to a sixth-round TKO that unified the IBF and WBA titles and jolted the welterweight division again to life. In a weight class left unmoored after Terence Crawford’s dismantling of Errol Spence Jr practically two years in the past, this was its most important struggle since – and maybe the primary true spark of a brand new period.
For years, Ennis has been hailed as the way forward for the welterweight division: an elite expertise with uncommon bodily items, energy in each palms, a excessive ring IQ and the type of adaptability that separates nice fighters from the remainder. Raised within the metropolis’s Germantown part and a Golden Gloves champion as an novice, Ennis turned professional in 2016 and has constructed a loyal hometown following, headlining two straight playing cards on the Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Heart final yr. However his most up-to-date outing, a sluggish rematch win over Karen Chukhadzhian, left critics unimpressed.
On Saturday evening, within the greatest struggle to hit Boardwalk Corridor in additional than a decade, it did. Ennis’s rise, like a lot of the 147lb panorama, was delayed whereas Crawford and Spence danced round their very own long-awaited showdown. Their eventual conflict in 2023 introduced closure however left the division scattered and fading. A revival felt overdue.
Saturday’s struggle supplied simply that. It was essentially the most significant 147lb bout since Crawford v Spence and the one one on the present schedule with actual consequence. WBC champion Mario Barrios and WBO titleholder Brian Norman Jr stay within the combine, however neither had the résumé or momentum of the boys within the ring in Atlantic Metropolis. Ennis and Stanionis had been one and two, charged with main the division ahead.
From the opening bell, Ennis boxed with authority – composed, imply and in complete management. He established the jab early, used it to interrupt Stanionis’ rhythm and repeatedly caught him stepping in. He landed crisp combos and bloodied Stanionis’s nostril within the fifth spherical with punishing hooks and uppercuts. In accordance with Compubox’s punch statistics, Ennis landed a fight-high 19 punches in spherical 5, 16 of them energy pictures.
Spherical six was the breaking level. After a measured begin, Ennis related with two thudding physique pictures that folded Stanionis ahead, then unleashed a barrage upstairs that dropped the Lithuanian arduous to the canvas. Stanionis beat the depend and made it out of the spherical, however he had nothing left. Between rounds, Stanionis’ coach Marvin Somodio made the decision.
It was a dominant and one-sided efficiency, maybe one of the best of Ennis’s profession given the caliber of opposition. He picked his spots to commerce, reset behind a jab, pivoted by means of angles and blended his assault to go and physique with medical intent. Stanionis saved coming, however Ennis by no means let the struggle get shut.
It additionally marked a revival of kinds for Atlantic Metropolis, a one-time struggle capital lengthy overshadowed by Las Vegas, New York and now Saudi Arabia. Boardwalk Corridor hadn’t hosted a serious title struggle since Sergey Kovalev beat Bernard Hopkins in 2014. On Saturday, the previous enviornment pulsed once more.
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