Undefeated rising welterweight star and Philadelphia-native Jaron “Boots” Ennis held a media workout in his hometown on Tuesday as he prepares to take on IBF No.4-rated welterweight Karen Chukhadzhian for the Interim IBF Welterweight Title in the co-main event of a SHOWTIME PPV on Saturday, January 7 headlining a SHOWTIME PPV from Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. in an event presented by Premier Boxing Champions.
The bout is part of a pay-per-view telecast beginning at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, headlined by undefeated five-time world champion and boxing superstar Gervonta “Tank” Davis taking on unbeaten world champion Héctor Luis García for Davis’ WBA Lightweight Title.
Tickets for the live event, which is promoted by GTD Promotions and TGB Promotions, are on sale now and can be purchased online at ticketmaster.com and capitalonearena.com. The Ennis vs. Chukhadzhian bout is promoted in association with D&D Boxing.
Here is what Ennis and his father and trainer “Bozy” Ennis had to say Tuesday from the Philly’s Next Champ gym:
JARON ENNIS
“I haven’t watched any footage of my opponent but my team has been watching him. We have a game plan for what he does well.
“I’m definitely excited to have people coming from Philly down to D.C. for the fight. It’s only a couple hours away, so you’ll definitely hear Philly in the building.
“It doesn’t matter where we’re fighting at, I’m going to train just as hard. We prepare for every single fight like it’s a world title fight.
“I’ve just been watching a lot of Mike Tyson myself. He put a lot of punches together. Triple, doubles, same hands, lots of knockouts. He didn’t see too many late rounds. I’ve been watching him a lot this camp.
“I’m training all year round. The holidays don’t affect the schedule. I eat good, my weight is on point and everything is good. My last day off was on Christmas, but that’s only because Sunday is my normal day off. If it was on a Saturday, I would have trained.
“I feel like Errol Spence Jr. would fight me. I’m going in there with the intention of winning the interim title, then fighting Errol next. I think we can make it happen.
“I’ll move up to 154 pounds at some point for sure. I’m strong and I can move up and down if I have to. I’ll fight anyone at 154 or 147.
“It’s safe to say we’re looking to have a short night on January 7.”
“BOZY” ENNIS, Jaron’s Father and Trainer
“We don’t change up the preparation much fight by fight. We just keep trying to work harder and harder. We’re just putting in the work.
“I don’t watch the opponents, I let Jaron’s brothers do that. I watch the first round of the fight and then I go from there. If you start looking at one fighter too much, you can get into a bad situation if they get hurt and have to be replaced. We train to face any kind of style.
“We took our time. We’ve waited around. The only thing holding us up is that we knew Spence was the mandatory, but we knew he was working on the fight with Terence Crawford. We’re definitely looking to fight three times next year now.”
