Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis now has a tough deadline to keep away from an undesirable necessary title protection.
The Ring has confirmed that the IBF has scheduled a Sept. 3 purse bid listening to for Ennis’ ordered welterweight title battle versus Karen Chukhadzhian. The event comes because the unbeaten Philadelphia native is negotiating a unification bout with WBO titleholder Brian Norman Jr.
No matter progress has been made between the pair of undefeated titleholders must escalate previous to the purse bid. A delay may be requested but it surely must be agreed upon by either side.
The battle was ordered on July 31. The shortage of debate between titleholder and second-time challenger suggests little to no talks have taken place on this matchup. Ennis (31-0, 28 knockouts), The Ring’s No. 1 rated welterweight, is promoted by Matchroom Boxing. Ukraine’s Chukhadzhian (24-2, 13 KOs) is with Germany-based outfit P2M Field-Promotion.
Ought to the bout transfer ahead, it will come as a rematch to Ennis’ twelve-round shutout over Chukhadzhian final Jan. 6 in Washington, D.C. Ennis received by scores of 120-108 on all three playing cards to say the interim IBF welterweight title. It was his first distance battle in six years, whereas the lone profession defeat for Chukhadzhian.
Ennis then defended the belt in a ninth-round stoppage of Roiman Villa final July 8 in Atlantic Metropolis, New Jersey. It got here three weeks previous to Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford’s full unification technical knockout win over Errol Spence final July 29 in Las Vegas.
Crawford was ordered to face Ennis in a title consolidation bout. The 30-day interval elapsed with zero talks having taken place. Crawford’s authorized workforce knowledgeable the IBF simply earlier than the 30-day deadline that they might not decide to the task. A contractually certain rematch clause exercised by Spence left The Ring’s No. 3-rated pound-for-pound fighter in a jam.
Ennis was subsequently named full IBF titlist. One protection has adopted, a fifth-round knockout of David Avanesyan. Their July 13 DAZN headliner marked Ennis’ DAZN debut and first battle at house in Philly since 2018.
In the meantime, Chukhadzhian made his means again to the number-one slot within the IBF. The 28-year-old contender from Kiev earned a clear-cut factors win over England’s Harry Scarff in a Might 17 IBF title eliminator in Rothenbaum, Germany. The win was his third in a row.
Matchroom has a tentative date put aside—Nov. 9—for Ennis’ subsequent DAZN headliner. A second battle with Chukhadzhian is a tough promote.
A title unification bout with Norman, nonetheless, has invigorated social media timelines.
The primary spherical of talks started earlier this month, however the two sides had been far aside on cash. Brunch Boxing’s Matthew “Mimosa” Brown reported that the hole was narrowed significantly from Matchroom’s follow-up provide.
Norman (26-0, 20 KOs), No. 5 at 147 by The Ring, has sufficient leverage to the place Matchroom might need to make a satan’s deal. Nonetheless, the unbeaten WBO welterweight titleholder wouldn’t be with out an possibility if the battle doesn’t occur subsequent. The payday wouldn’t be fairly the identical, however—as reported by The Ring—the failsafe is a slot on Keyshawn Davis’ No. 8 homecoming card in Norfolk, Virginia.
It could mark the worst case state of affairs from all this, however would nonetheless put Ennis and Norman on the identical timeline. Their fights would land one night time aside, which may very well be used to additional construct momentum in direction of a fascinating unification bout.
That stated, most within the business are rooting for a drastic flip of occasions between now and Sept. 3.
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