The Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia hosts world title action this Saturday evening, and at the head of affairs, the highly-touted Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis defends his IBF welterweight world title for the first time against the heavy-handed David Avanesyan.
Eddie Hearn and Matchroom promote Ennis vs Avanesyan, and DAZN televise live worldwide.
Ennis (31-0, 28 KOs) has blasted out a whole host of opponents within the first four rounds, but has also shown a technical side, securing the interim IBF belt in January last year by winning all twelve rounds against Karen Chukhadzhian.
That was the only time that ‘Boots’ has been the championship distance in his career, and he passed that test with flying colours.
The 27-year-old made his first defence of the belt last July, knocking Roiman Villa out in the eighth round, and he was upgraded to full IBF champion after Terence Crawford vacated to move up in weight.
Ennis, who signed with Matchroom in April, was slated to face his mandatory challenger Cody Crowley, but the Canadian had to withdraw with an eye injury, and in-steps the teak-tough Avanesyan (30-4-1, 18 KOs) for his homecoming defence.
The Armenian went to world level in 2017, outscored for the WBO title against Lamont Peterson, and rebounded with a dominant spell as European champion, that included stoppage wins over Josh Kelly and Kerman Lajarraga (twice).
The 35-year-old earned a crack at WBO boss Terence Crawford in 2022, but found ‘Bud’ in red-hot form, falling to a sixth round knockout loss.
He returned with a routine retirement win over Serge Ambomo last December.
Prediction: Ennis is a special talent, and Avanesyan will come forward and go on the attack, playing to the champion’s strengths. I think Ennis can win in style, possibly via late stoppage.
Nicolson defends world title against Vargas
The other world title action comes at featherweight, where Skye Nicolson defends her WBC crown for the first time against Dyana Vargas.
Nicolson (10-0, 1 KO) won the vacant title with a near-shutout points win against Sarah Mahfoud in April, while Vargas (19-1, 12 KOs) fights outside of her native Dominican Republic for the first time, on a run of three straight wins since an eight round points loss in 2023.
Prediction: All signs point to a Nicholson win on the cards here.
Coe clashes with Ritter
Khalil Coe (8-0-1, 6 KOs) goes for his first professional title, and he should claim the vacant WBC USA light heavyweight title with a stoppage win over late-replacement Kwame Ritter (11-1, 9 KOs), who was stopped by Diego Pacheco last time out.
View this post on Instagram
Hackett meets Dobson
Jalil Major Hackett (8-0, 7 KOs) makes a step-up to ten round class on his Matchroom debut and he may need the distance to see off Peter Dobson in their welterweight meeting.
Dobson (16-1, 9 KOs) took Conor Benn twelve hard rounds in his last outing in February.
Remaining Undercard
In eight round action, former two-time world title challenger Christopher Diaz-Velez (28-4, 18 KOs) should take his super featherweight clash against Derlyn Hernandez-Gerarldo (12-1-1, 10 KOs) on points.
Elsewhere, Philadelphia native Christian Carto (22-1, 15 KOs) should notch another stoppage win before the end of his eight round contest against Carlos Buitrago (38-13-1, 22 KOs)
View this post on Instagram
In the only six rounder, super lightweight prospect Ismail Muhammad (4-0, 3 KOs) can outscore Frank Brown (3-4-2, 1 KO), and in the four rounder, debutant Dennis Thompson can halt Fernando Joaquin Valdez (1-7) in their bantamweight affair.
