Jaron 'Boots' Ennis drops David Avanesyan en route to TKO to retain title, calls for Terence Crawford fight

Jaron "Boots" Ennis walked to the ring in his hometown of Philadelphia on Saturday night wanting to make a statement. It was mission accomplished for Ennis as he scored a stoppage win over David Avanesyan to retain the IBF welterweight championship.

One of the unspoken goals of the fight for Ennis was to outperform what former undisputed welterweight champion Terence Crawford, whom Ennis has been chasing a fight with, was able to do in his December 2022 win over Avanesyan, a fight where Crawford scored a stoppage late in the sixth round. When Avanesyan was unable to answer the bell for Round 6 against Ennis, the statement was made loud and clear.

Ennis opened the fight working behind a stiff jab and had Avanesyan a bit rattled with one of those powerful lefts less than 30 seconds into the fight. The ease with which Ennis was landing the jab, even as he switched between orthodox and southpaw, opened up Ennis' full arsenal to the head and body. Unfortunately, with just under a minute left in the opening round, Ennis' body work drifted too far south, landing cleanly to Avanesyan's cup and bringing a halt to the action as Avanesyan recovered.

Avanesyan was able to recover and the fight continued, with Ennis continuing to punish with thudding shots and using head movement to slip any return fire.

To his credit, Avanesyan didn't stop trying to find a path to victory, at times landing clean power shots and trying to walk down the bigger, stronger and more talented fighter in Ennis.

The fight was building to a potentially violent finish when Ennis scored the first knockdown with a big overhand left in the fifth round. Avanesyan got to his feet quickly, but Ennis kept his foot on the gas, trying to find the finish. Avanesyan survived to the end of the round but the fight was stopped in the corner with Avanesyan's face badly swollen from the incoming fire, making the official result a TKO at the 3:00 mark of Round 5.

With the win, Ennis' professional record improved to 32-0, with 29 wins by stoppage.

"I felt good. I felt off a little bit," Ennis said after the fight. "I think I had a little ring rust. ... My timing was a little off. I don't know why I came in here thinking my timing was going to be off. But it's OK. I'm in shape and could have gone 15 rounds easy."

It took little time for Crawford's name to come up regarding what Ennis wants next.  Crawford will next be in action on Aug. 3 when he faces Israil Madrimov for the vacant WBA junior middleweight championship.

"Most definitely, let's make it happen," Ennis said. "I want the big names. Terence Crawford or anybody else at that weight that has a big name."