Ennis dominates, drops, stops Stanionis to unify welterweight titles
Turns in career-best performance in biggest fight to stamp himself No. 1 at 147; Ford shuts out Mattice; 1st-round KO for Omari Jones; Giyasov notches emotional victory a month after daughter's death
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Jaron “Boots” Ennis was as direct as could be leading up to his welterweight title unification fight with Eimantas Stanionis when asked what he would do.
“I’m ready to show out and put on a show and show the world why I’m the best, and come Saturday night I’m going to take home all these belts,” he said.
Ennis did exactly that, producing a career-best performance in his biggest fight to take the mantle as the No. 1 welterweight in the world.
He issued a one-sided beat down to Stanionis, whose trainer, Marvin Somodio, stopped the fight after the sixth round with his bloodied and beaten man on the stool.
Ennis retained the IBF title for the third time, took the WBA title from Stanionis, and won the vacant Ring magazine title emblematic of the No. 1 champion in a given weight class in the main event of the Matchroom Boxing card on DAZN at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
It was just the 14th welterweight unification bout in the storied history of the division and first since Terence Crawford’s similar master class in a ninth-round destruction of Errol Spence Jr. to become the undisputed champion in July 2023.
Crawford later was stripped by the IBF for not fighting Ennis in a mandatory fight but also vacated the other belts because he was trying to lock in a Spence rematch, which didn’t happen, and also moving up in weight.
That left most viewing Ennis as No. 1 and Stanionis as No.2 in the division, but now Ennis has proven he is the 147-pound king with an authoritative pummeling of Stanionis, who was making his second defense.
It was the first boxing event in the famed Boardwalk Hall main arena — home to so significant bouts through the years involving fighters such as Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, George Foreman, Arturo Gatti, Floyd Mayweather, Wladimir Klitschko, Bernard Hopkins and Miguel Cotto — since Sergey Kovalev’s shutout decision over Hopkins to unify light heavyweight titles in November 2014.
As a kid, Ennis, who is from nearby Philadelphia, attended cards in the smaller upstairs arena. He even made an IBF interim title defense there in July 2023 in a knockout of Roiman Villa. Ennis was excited to fight in the main arena, saying he wanted to put on a “historic” performance. He did it at Stanionis’ expense.
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“I felt like I was just getting in my groove, started getting loose and having fun,” Ennis said of the end of the fight. “And my dad (trainer Bozy Ennis) told me, ‘Just keep pressing, you’re going to stop him.’ And what’s crazy was I had a dream I was going to stop him just like this in the seventh round. It came true.”
It was all Ennis from the outset, who shook off a pedestrian performance in a decision over Karen Chukhadzhian in a mandatory rematch in November. He had already easily outpointed Chukhadzhian to win the vacant interim belt in 2023 before being elevated to full titleholder.
The unification fight was tremendously important to Ennis because as the IBF interim titlist, he felt he had never truly won a world title.
So, despite issues making weight, he decided to remain in the division. He even took tremendous criticism when after agreeing to a deal to fight WBC interim junior middleweight titlist Vergil Ortiz Jr. this past February, it fell apart because Ennis wanted him to fight at welterweight, which was never part of the discussions.
He felt vindicated after thrashing Stanionis.
“It was very important to me,” Ennis said of unifying. “This IBF belt right here, I was an interim champ and I was elevated. I woke up one morning and I was world champion. I never actually fought for this belt. I finally was able to fight for the WBA or fight for another title and take it from the man and beat him. It’s a blessing.
“That’s everything I always wanted. I felt way better than sitting in the bed, waking up and being the IBF champ.”
Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn was very impressed by Ennis’ dismantling of Stanionis.
“Tear up the pound-for-pound list! This is one of the finest fighters in the sport and tonight that was a performance from one of the best fighters in the sport of boxing,” Hearn said. “He’s now the unified world champion, Ring magazine champion, by far the best fighter in the division. He’s gonna be around for a long time — ’47, ’54, ’60 (pounds).
“You’re witnessing true greatness. Now he’ll make his way onto the pound-for-pound list. We got to fight the other champions. The future is so bright. He’s the future of the sport. We’ve been saying for awhile we want a performance where we can stand on the ropes and scream and shout this is the best fighter in the world. We got all of that tonight.
“It was the best versus the best and it was a walk in the park for a pound-for-pound star in Jaron Ennis. He’s gonna be around for a long time. He wanted to fight the other champion. People criticized him for not moving up. He said, ‘All I want to do is fight the champions, win other belts.’ We stayed patient and it paid off tonight.”
Ennis (34-0, 30 KOs), 27, took control in the first round thanks to heavy jabs and a sustained body attack he kept going throughout the fight.
“I felt I softened him up. I felt I could go to the body as much as I wanted to,” Ennis said. “I found a way to get to the body. He’s a great fighter and a good guy but I was just picking it up and picking it up.”
Ennis threw many combinations and tattooed Stanionis, who landed several good shots, including solid counter left hands, but typically he threw just one punch at a time.
Stanionis (15-1, 9 KOs), 30, a 2016 Olympian from Lithuania, whose wife is due to give birth at any time, pressed forward against Ennis, who went down in the third round. However, referee David Fields correctly ruled it was due to a punch behind the head.
Ennis was easily winning the rounds and only encountered brief trouble in the fifth round. Stanionis mounted his best offensive moments, landing to the head and body. But just when it looked like it might be Stanionis’ breakthrough round, Ennis backed him up with hard punches, slamming one of them into his nose, which began bleeding heavily. He covered up and Ennis pounded him over the last 45 seconds or so of the round.
Ennis, who switched between righty and lefty to give Stanionis even more to think about, ripped him with a body shot in the sixth round and then, with about 30 seconds left, unleashed a series of left uppercuts that knocked Stanionis down. He made it out of the round but, Somodio stopped the fight in the corner with no protest from Stanionis.
According to CompuBox statistics, Ennis landed 81 of 424 punches (19 percent), including landing 26 body shots, and Stanionis landed 58 of 185 (31 percent). Ennis also outlanded Stanionis in five of the six rounds.
“The biggest part was me having my fun, being myself and having a live body in front of me,” Ennis said. “When I got a live body in front of me, y’all see what happens. I put on a show, I had my fun. I showed you speed, power, defense, I showed you a little bit of inside game.
“I showed everything. I feel like, like I said, when I got a live body in front of me, it’s a whole different story. You’re gonna see a whole different Boots and I’m gonna keep taking it to the next level.”
Hearn said he planned to bring Ennis back to fight in Philadelphia but it remains to be seen who he will face. He inherited from Stanionis a due WBA mandatory against Shakhram Giyasov, who won on the undercard. There may also be a push to unify with either of the other two titleholders in the division, Brian Norman (WBO) and Mario Barrios (WBC).
“He’s chasing greatness,” Hearn said. “He’s making money and the money will come but that’s not the important thing to Boots Ennis. It’s about legacy and it’s about proving to everyone that he’s the best fighter in the world. He’s a joy to work with because all he wants to do is give the fans the best fights and he will do that consistently over the next five, six, seven years. What you saw tonight was just a snippet of what’s to come.”
Ennis wanted to savor his biggest win and wasn’t ready to address his next move.
“I’m gonna enjoy my victory, enjoy these belts, take some time with the fam, I'll talk to the team, and we're going to see what's next,” Ennis said.
That said, Ennis expects to have many more big nights.
“They still ain’t seen nothing yet,” Ennis said. “I got a long way to go. I’m just getting started. The party’s just getting started.”
Ford shuts out Mattice
In the co-feature, former WBA featherweight titlist Raymond Ford shut out Thomas Mattice in a sleep-inducing junior lightweight fight in which Mattice did almost nothing.
Ford (17-1-1, 8 KOs), 26, a southpaw from Camden, New Jersey, won 100-90 on all three scorecards in what was probably a lot less rigorous than many of his sparring sessions. He won his second fight in a row since losing his featherweight belt to Nick Ball by split decision in June and then moving up to 130 pounds.
“I fee like it was OK,” Ford said of his performance. “He was a solid opponent in there. He was real smart. I did want the stoppage, the knockout. There were times I hurt him, but I let him grab me. He was a smart veteran.”
Mattice (22-5-1, 17 KOs), 34, of Cleveland, who lost his second in row, simply did not come to fight and was historically ineffective.
According to CompuBox, Ford landed 128 of 510 punches (25 percent) and Mattice landed just 24 of 126 (19 percent).
How pathetic was Mattice’s showing? Not only did Ford outland him in every round, Mattice’s 24 connects tied for second in fewest punches landed in any 10-round fight tracked in the 40-year history of CompuBox. His 126 thrown were the fewest ever in a 10-round bout.
Mattice was credited with landing zero punches in the first (0-for-4), eighth (0-for-8) and 10th (0-for-5) rounds.
“He had nothing for me,” Ford said. “It was just he could take a hit. I was trying to set him up for some good shots but he took (them).”
Ford will now wait to see what happens with fellow Matchroom Boxing fighter Eduardo “Sugar” Nunez when he squares off with Masanori Rikiishi for the vacant IBF junior lightweight title on May 28 in Yokohama, Japan. If Nunez wins, Ford is hopeful Matchroom Boxing will match him with Nunez in his first defense.
“I’ve been telling Eddie this. Been telling my team this. (Nunez) knows I want this fight,” Ford said. “It is up to him if he wants to fight me. So that's the real question. So hopefully he goes over there and do his thing, bring that belt back so we can get it on.”
Jones blitzes Jackson
Junior middleweight prospect Omari Jones, who claimed a bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics and was the only Team USA boxer, male or female, to come home with hardware, looked sharp in a first-round knockout of William Jackson.
Jones (2-0, 2 KOs), 22, of Orlando, Florida, made it look easy. He blunted Jackson’s initial rush and when he nailed him with a counter right to the midsection, Jackson collapsed to the canvas on all fours.
He had his head and down and appeared to be in agony as referee David Franciosi counted him out at 1 minute, 47 seconds.
“I felt great about it,” Jones said of his performance. “He was a veteran so we was looking at this fight to get some rounds. So, hey, if we can do something like that then I’ll go ahead and get him outta there.
“He came out strong. He came out with big shots. He came aggressive. But I just stayed tight (defensively) and I just looked for the shot and landed it. We on to the next one. I’m enjoying how things are going. I’m built for this moment and we’re gonna keep shining.”
Jackson (13-6-2, 5 KOs), 36, of Cincinnati, lost his fourth fight in a row, including three straight by knockout.
Jones was back in the ring just a month after making his professional debut in his hometown on March 15 with a second-round knockout of Italian Alessio Mastronunzio.
Giyasov KOs Ocampo
Welterweight Shakhram Giyasov, fighting with a heavy heart, preserved his status as the WBA mandatory challenger with a one-sided fourth-round knockout of Franco Ocampo.
Giyasov was fighting just a month after the death of his 2-year-old daughter from a rare brain condition.
“For me, it’s very, very, very hard,” an emotional Giyasov said after the fight. “It was a very hard camp because I lost my daughter. She’s seeing me. She’s now watching me now. She’s praying for me. I promised her I would be world champion. I love her.”
Giyasov (17-0, 10 KOs), 31, a 2016 Olympic silver medalist from Uzbekistan, dominated from start to finish.
He dropped Ocampo (17-3, 8 KOs), 28, of Argentina, with series of head shots in the first round, pounded him to the body, and in the fourth round dropped him to a knee with a right hand to the body. Referee Franciosi counted him out at 1 minute, 57 seconds.
Giyasov promoter Matchroom Boxing and PBC and TGB Promotions, which represent Stanionis, had made a deal for the mandatory bout to take place on a spring PBC card. However, Giyasov later agreed to step aside to allow Ennis and Stanionis to unify titles. He could be next for Ennis.
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Photos: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing
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I was wrong about Boots Ennis. He's legitimate. Congratulations to him. And congratulations to Eddie Hearn, on finally finding his first legitimate American Star. Boardwalk Hall looked great and was lit. Keep it going.
Emily Austin + Ak = DAZN C-Team