Ennis dominates Lipinets before scoring highlight-reel KO in sixth round

Stanionis tops Dulorme; Ancajas wins war; Benn smokes Vargas

Welterweight Jaron “Boots” Ennis, the 2020 prospect of the year, became a 2021 contender with a tremendous performance on Saturday night.

Ennis, the flashy and powerful Philadelphia prodigy, took a major step up in competition against former junior welterweight world titlist Sergey Lipinets, knocking him out in highlight-reel fashion in the sixth round of a dominating performance in the main event of a Showtime-televised tripleheader inside the bubble of Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.

“Most definitely I think I graduated tonight,” Ennis said. “It’s on the up and up now. It’s onto bigger and better fights now.”

Ennis was in control from the outset as he effortlessly switched between left-handed and right-handed stances.

Ennis was doing as he pleased when he was credited with a knockdown in the fourth round. He threw a left hand but it did not land. Lipinets, however, went down because he and Ennis got their feet tangled, but referee Arthur Mercante Jr. missed it; replay is not used under Mohegan Sun tribal rules.

Lipinets (16-2-1, 12 KOs), 32, a Kazakhstan native fighting out of Woodland Hills, California, struggled to do anything consistent on offense. He landed several low blows and Mercante gave him a hard warning in the fifth round, telling him another one would cost him a point.

But it never came to that as Ennis (27-0, 25 KOs), 23, finished him off in the sixth round, matching the deepest he has ever been in a fight. He landed a picturesque three-punch combination — right uppercut, right hand and straight left hand — to flatten Lipinets. Mercante immediately called off the fight at 2 minutes, 11 seconds.

“That’s what we work on in the gym, a lot of power shots, just having fun and doing my thing,” Ennis said. “I’m comfortable on both sides (righty or lefty). It’s natural for me and I don’t know when I switch. Everything is all natural. That’s about it. I saw that he wasn’t really as good on the inside as me and that’s why I started getting a little closer and I started touching and looking for my big shot, and I found it.”

Ennis was ahead 49-45 on two scorecards and 50-44 on the third card at the time of the knockout.

Lipinets’ only previous loss was by unanimous decision in 2018, when Mikey Garcia defeated him to take his 140-pound world title. The only other blemish on Lipinets’ record came in a draw Custio Clayton in his previous bout in October.

According to CompuBox statistics, Ennis Landed 125 of 300 punches (42 percent) and Lipinets landed 75 of 266 (28 percent).

“My goal is to keep getting better, sharper, faster and stronger so I can become world champion, Ennis said. “As long as I keep fighting top guys, I’m happy. I feel like I will be world champion by the end of this year or beginning of next year. Patience is the key though.

“I don’t think it was my hardest fight. I was in there having fun and doing what I wanted. I don’t take anything away from Lipinets because he’s a great fighter, but I was just doing me, being relaxed and putting on a show. Hopefully, the other top welterweight fighters want to take me on. I want to elevate my career and go down in history as a Hall of Famer. I might have to become a mandatory to get the title fight. Until then, I’m going to keep working to fight the best fighters available to me.”

Stanionis outpoints Dulorme

Welterweight prospect Eimantas Stanionis took a major step up in competition against former world title challenger Thomas Dulorme and won a clear unanimous decision in an entertaining title eliminator.

Stanionis, with dreams of becoming the first Lithuanian world champion, won 117-111, 116-112 and 115-113 to score by far his biggest victory.

Dulorme dropped to 1-3-1 in his last five bouts but has faced top opposition, including Terence Crawford, Yordenis Ugas, Jessie Vargas and Jamal James, and usually been competitive, and he was again against Stanionis, taking him past the ninth round for the first time.

Dulorme (25-5-1, 16 KOs), 31, of Puerto Rico, got off to quick start but Stanionis (13-0, 9 KOs), 26, a 2016 Lithuanian Olympian, eventually settled down and took control of the fight. He won the final five rounds on all three scorecards.

Dulorme opened a cut over Stanionis left eye with a punch in the 10th round. Even though Stanionis, whose jab was a key weapon, appeared well in control in the final round, he pressed Dulorme and tried for the knockout as they battled to the end.

“It’s been a dream since I was a kid watching Showtime to be on this stage,” Stanionis said. “I’m proud of what I’ve achieved. I’ve had a long hard journey to get here, but it’s been worth it.

“Dulorme always threw back at me, even if I hurt him. I knew that if I was wild, he could have caught me with a good shot. I have more confidence in myself now because I know I can go 12 rounds with a good fighter. I know how the pressure will hit me now. Anything can happen in this sport, so I made sure I was prepared coming into this fight.”

Ancajas outslugs Rodriguez

Jerwin Ancajas retained his title for the ninth time by winning a unanimous decision against mandatory challenger Jonathan Javier Rodriguez in a fierce battle.

The judges had it 117-110, 116-111 and 115-112 for Ancajas following a grueling, action-packed fight.

“We made a lot of sacrifices for this defense,” Ancajas said. “This fight was very hard for me. I was happy to get the knock down because Rodriguez is tough, but I have strong boxing. This was my toughest world title defense. This was my toughest fight so far. It was the hardest of any of my nine defenses and it’s exciting that it was on a big card. I trained hard for this opportunity and it feels great to get the win.”

With a ninth defenses, Ancajas (33-1-2, 22 KOs), 29, a southpaw from the Philippines and a Manny Pacquiao protégé, now has made more defenses than any active world titlist.

The fight seemed closer than the two widest scorecards, but Ancajas had some big rounds in the second half of the fight. He dropped Rodriguez (22-2, 16 KOs), 25, of Mexico, in the eighth round with an onslaught of body shots and a straight left hand.

“I did have to recuperate,” Rodriguez said. “He hit me with a good shot, and I got knocked down.”

Rodriguez appeared on the verge of going to down multiple times in the later rounds but he showed enormous heart to stay on his feet and even rallied to win a couple of rounds.

According to CompuBox, Ancajas landed 232 of 758 punches (31 percent) and Rodriguez landed 273 of 826 (33 percent).

“I don’t think it was a just decision,” Rodriguez said. “I thought maybe a split decision, and I would accept it a little more. But we knew coming in that the judges were against us in this fight.”

The fight was supposed to take place last April but was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Rodriguez won a tune-up fight in December but Ancajas hadn’t fought since December 2019.

“I’m very happy to get the win. I waited a long time for the opportunity to get back in the ring and it’s exciting to win in my first fight on this stage fighting on Showtime,” Ancajas said. “It’s a big win for my whole team.

Ancajas is hoping for a bigger fight in a loaded division that includes unified champion Juan Francisco Estrada and former champions Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez, Srisaket Sor Rungvisai and Carlos Cuadras.

“For me, I will wait for the plan of my coaches and promoter and hope to get a chance for a unification fight,” Ancajas said. “I want to fight all of the other champions in this division. Estrada, Chocolatito and all of the big names. I proved again that I’m a real champion and I deserve to be on the level with the rest of the champions.”

Benn destroys Vargas

Welterweight up-and-comer Conor Benn aced what was supposed to be the stiffest test of his young career and then called out for bigger names and better competition.

Benn, the son of British legend and former two-division world titlist Nigel Benn, needed just 80 seconds to lay waste to the vastly experienced Samuel Vargas and retain his regional belt on Saturday in the main event of the Matchroom Boxing card at Copper Box Arena in London.

Benn (18-0, 12 KOs), 24, of England, forced the fight on Vargas, backed him up and put his punches together, throwing jabs, hooks and uppercuts. He unleashed more than a dozen unanswered punches and one of the uppercuts did serious damage as Vargas backed into the ropes. As Benn continued to fire away, Vargas was getting hit flush and not defending himself, forcing referee Michael Alexander to step in.

While Benn was certainly expected to win, Vargas was expected to at least give him some kind of test and take him rounds. Vargas (31-7-2, 14 KOs), 31, a Colombia native fighting out of Toronto, after all had faced several top opponents in losses, including decisions to Amir Khan and former titlist Luis Collazo and knockouts against Errol Spence Jr., when he was a big-time prospect, Danny Garcia and Vergil Ortiz Jr., who stopped him in the seventh round in Vargas’ previous fight last July.

But Benn took him out way easier than Ortiz did and then called for bigger fights.

“Gimme a proper test, gimme Amir Khan,” said Benn, then adding former titleholders Shawn Porter (31-3-1, 17 KOs) and Adrien Broner (34-4-1, 24 KOs) to list of call outs.

Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn lauded Benn’s work ethic and focus as the reasons he has been able to turn himself a guy with no amateur experience and questionable talent with a famous father into a serious prospect. He said he would love to make a fight between Benn and Khan (34-5, 21 KOs), a former unified junior welterweight titlist, former welterweight title challenger and one of the biggest names in British boxing, even though he is near the end of his career.

“(Benn is) so hungry. He outworks everyone in the gym,” Hearn said. “It’s hard not to get really, really excited. How can you not say he’s not ready for all the guys he’s talked about? Long way to go, superstar in the making.”

Showtime card photos: Amanda Westcott/Showtime; Benn photo: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing