'Boots' Ennis, 'Bam' Rodriguez easily retain titles

Jaron “Boots” Ennis retained his IBF welterweight title with a unanimous decision victory over Karen Chukhadzhian in a rematch Saturday night in Philadelphia.

Ennis, who is from Philadelphia, was fighting at home for the second consecutive outing. Unlike in that July bout, however, Ennis failed to impress with a decision win over Chukhadzhian.

The scores were 119-107, 117-109 and 116-110.

Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) dropped Chukhadzhian in Round 5 with a series of body shots. But Ennis was never on the verge of finishing his opponent. He was the -5000 favorite, according to ESPN BET.

“My performance? It was OK,” Ennis said. “I don’t know, man. I think it might be time to go into [154 pounds]. … I feel like at ’54 I’m going to be way better. … I wanted to be better than last time and I wanted to get that knockout. I hurt him a lot of times and I was rushing.”

Ennis scored a shutout decision over Chukhadzhian during their January 2023 meeting, a fight that didn’t warrant a rematch.

But the IBF, known for its curious rankings and strict enforcement of mandatory fights, ordered Ennis to fight Chukhadzhian again once he rose to the top ranking at 147 pounds.

Ennis was coming off a fifth-round TKO of David Avanesyan in July.

Ukraine’s Chukhadzhian (24-3, 13 KOs) won three consecutive confidence-building fights after the 2023 loss to Ennis, including a unanimous decision over Harry Scarff in May.

Rodriguez TKOs Guevara in three

Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez retained his WBC 115-pound title with a third-round TKO victory over Pedro Guevara.

Rodriguez (20-0, 13 KOs) floored Guevara with a combination in Round 3 and then finished him with a right uppercut at 2:47 of the frame.

“I’m pretty happy [with my performance], but I already kind of knew it was going to happen that way,” Rodriguez said. “I really thought he was going to stand there and fight a little bit more, but right from the beginning, he was moving. You saw tonight who I am.”

Rodriguez is ESPN’s No. 7 pound-for-pound boxer. He scored the biggest win of his career in June, a seventh-round KO of future Hall of Famer Juan Francisco Estrada. The 24-year-old from San Antonio was making the first defense of the title he won from Estrada.

Guevara (42-4-1, 22 KOs) is ESPN’s No. 8 junior bantamweight. The 35-year-old Mexican is a former 108-pound champion. He earned this title shot vs. Rodriguez with a split decision win over Andrew Moloney in May.

Rodriguez was a -2000 favorite, per ESPN BET.