Jaron Ennis — Looks Better Than Ever; Same Questions As Always

The thing about fighting Philadelphia’s Jaron Ennis is, he eats enough clean punches to make you think you have a chance.

So when Eimantas Stanionis, clipped him with a counter left hook halfway through the opening round of their welterweight title unification bout last Saturday in Atlantic City, it appeared like a moment of hope. Not quite a fair trade for the dozen or so punches Ennis had already landed, but a solid starting point for Stanionis, a Lithuanian slugger with a brick wall of a physique.

And when Stanionis — a co-champion who felt like a challenger in front of 9,000 or so Ennis supporters who had driven down from Philly — controlled the opening two minutes of Round 5, it appeared to signal a shift in the initiative.

He cut off the ring, trapped Ennis in a corner, and landed an overhand right before whacking him with two left hooks to the stomach. Then he did it again mid-ring. The sequences looked like an opening for Stanionis, who arrived for fight week spouting a do-or-die mantra.

All Gas, No Brakes.

And so he ran head-on into the other thing about fighting Jaron Ennis:

He can shift gears.

The next 40 seconds qualified as a sprint. A jab, an uppercut, and an overhand left from the southpaw stance put Stanionis in reverse. He weathered another Ennis flurry but emerged with a bloody nose.

At the bell Stanionis trudged back to his corner looking bloody, exhausted, and, most of all, resigned. He hit the canvas under a withering body attack late in the sixth, and as he slouched on his stool between rounds his trainer, Marvin Somodio, stopped the fight.

The technical knockout improved Ennis’ record to 34-0 (30 KO). He entered the bout as the IBF welterweight champion, and added the WBA and Ring Magazine titles with that boxing clinic of a win.

Ennis also entered Saturday with questions about whether, against a world-class opponent, he could meet the high standard he set for himself. Last November he manhandled Karen Chukhadzhian, but also underperformed. He went 12 rounds with an opponent he thought would knock out, and absorbed punches that might have done real damage coming from a heavier hitter.

Afterward he told us he just needed the right opponent bring the best out of him, and Saturday he proved that he wasn’t just talking. In November he promised a masterclass, and on Saturday he delivered it.

“When I got a live body in front of me, y’all see what happens. I put on a show,” he said. “Every round I was getting in my bag, getting in my groove, loosening up, having fun.”

Early in the opening round, Ennis, fighting out of an orthodox stance, wrapped a roundhouse right around Stanionis’ guard to land a thudding punch to the ribcage. A single blow that says so much about Ennis, his attack and his accuracy:

If you don’t give him an opening, he’ll create one.

In Round 3 the fighters traded jabs. Stanionis’ landed like a ram rod; Ennis’ like a spear. Ennis followed up with a right hand to the jaw, then thumped Stanionis with a left and a right to the body.

When the bell sounded, Ennis paused and did a celebratory shimmy on his walk back to the corner, where his father, Bozy, was still in work mode.

“Keep using that jab, Boots,” he said. “Lemme see some straight shots sometimes.”

Stanionis kept advancing with his hands high. Ennis still raised welts with his left jab. Stanionis showed up with armor-plated abdominal muscles. Ennis poked his belly anyway, with a jab sharp enough to pierce metal.

By the sixth, Stanionis had slowed, understandably. With 45 seconds remaining, Ennis unloaded with both hands to the body. Stanionis took a knee, and none of us would have blamed him for staying down. Instead, he rose and survived the round before his corner ended the fight.

In November, Ennis pressed for a knockout and laboured his way to a decision. On Saturday he decided stayed true to his unique style, and the TKO came to him.

And the rest of us?

We’re finally seeing when Ennis can accomplish when motivation meets preparation on a big stage.

“Tear up the pound for pound list! This is one of the finest fighters in the sport,” said Eddie Hearn, chairman of Matchroom Boxing, in the ring afterward. “He’s going to be around for a long time. (One hundred and) 47, 54, 60. It’s all coming. You’re witnessing greatness.”

We can indulge Hearn in some mild hyperbole. If a promoter’s not exaggerating to generate attention for their fighter, are they even doing their job? But before jumping up to junior middleweight, Ennis says he wants to clear out the welterweight division, where Mario Barrios holds the WBC title, and Brian Norman Jr. is the WBO champ.

I’m tempted to say we’ve never seen a fighter like Ennis before, but I know it’s not true. Comparisons abound. They’re indirect, but strong.

It’s easy, for example, to see parallels between Ennis and Terence Crawford, his immediate predecessor as the welterweight division’s kingpin. They’re natural right-handers who do much of their damage from the southpaw stance, skilled boxers who don’t mind an in-close rumble.

Of course, Ennis lacks Crawford’s raw physical strength, but so does every other welterweight in history. When he’s in rhythm, though, Ennis is a peerless combination puncher. He matches handspeed and footwork to land punches from every angle imaginable, and from a few only he can think up. Where Crawford was a 147-pound powerhouse, Ennis brings a special brand of hit-and-don’t get-hit slickness.

Except he does get hit.

Never often enough to alter the trajectory of any of his fights, or hard enough to make him reconsider his tactics, but often and hard enough that we notice. Stanionis, now 15-1 with nine knockouts, couldn’t budge him, but he landed enough left hooks and lead rights to make you wonder how Ennis would react against an opponent with true one-punch knockout power.

In that sense, my good friend and broadcast partner Corey Erdman likens Ennis to Prince Naseem Hamed or Meldrick Taylor. None of those guys fights like the other two, but they’re all brilliant offensive operators who absorbed the occasional haymaker as the price for delivering their own high-octane combinations.

Is it a shortcoming?

Sure.

Every fighter has at least one. Sometimes we don’t notice until the right opponent exposes them. Often they don’t matter… until they do. We’ve never seen Ennis wobbled, and maybe we never will. If we’re focused on his deficiencies it’s likely because he does everything else so well. Make him a little slower, with a more face-forward, blue-collar attack, and we’d be praising his chin. But because he’s so flawless on offense, we’re nit-picking his defense.

For perspective, Ennis just took an undefeated welterweight champion and made him look like an journeyman. He didn’t just beat Stanionis up. He beat him down.

Somodio waved the fight off and nobody complained. Not Stanionis, leaking from several places on his bruised face. Certainly not Ennis, who was appointed IBF champion when Crawford vacated the title, and who was elated to finally win a title in the ring. And not even bloodthirsty boxing fans, who expect half-blind fighters to keep swinging till they can’t see out of either eye.

Another round would have changed nothing and proved even less.

Stanionis wanted a fight, and Ennis gave him one. He was all gas and no brakes, so Ennis, now a unified champ on the hunt for more welterweight belts, stopped him short.

“All gas, no brakes? What car you know that just goes ‘go?'” Ennis said at the post-fight news conference. “They go over the bridge.”

 

 

 

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