Former unified welterweight champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis (35-0, 31 KOs) looked like 24k gold, knocking out the hapless Uisma Lima (14-2, 10 KOs), knocking him out in the first round to win the WBA interim junior middleweight title on Saturday night at the Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Ennis dropped Lima twice in the first round. In the follow-up barrage, the fight was waved off by the referee. The fight was stopped at 1:58 of round one.
“I knew he was hurt. I sent a big message. You know who I want next. Tick-tock, gunshot. It’s going to happen next. If he don’t win, I’ll fight the winner of that. Fundora and Murtazaliev,” said Ennis. “Big fight next.”
Tonight’s Undercard results
- Heavyweight Guido Vianello (14-3-1, 12 KOs) kept his career alive, knocking out Canadian Alexis Barriere (12-1, 10 KOs) in round five of an exciting fight. The 2016 Italian Olympian, Vianello, was getting the worst of it through the third round, getting caught repeatedly by left hands from the southpaw Barriere. However, in the fourth round, Vianello came out looking like a new man, attacking Barriere like a hungry wolf, hitting him at will with big power shots. Barriere wilted under the power shots and pressure from Vianello, collapsing on the canvas in the final 20 seconds of the round. He got up and just barely escaped the round. There was no way Barriere could recover in between rounds. He looked gone while sitting on his stool, being looked at by the referee and his concerned training team. At the start of the fifth, the 6’6″ Vianello pounced on Barrere, burying him with shots until he went down after being nailed by a right hand that nicked his temple. He was too hurt to get back up, and the referee, Ricky Gonzalez, halted the contest.
- Welterweight Tahmir Smalls (16-0, 11 KOs) lucked out tonight, winning a questionable 10-round unanimous decision over Jose Roman (14-2, 6 KOs). Smalls was outboxed in nine of the ten rounds by Roman, but scored a knockdown in the third. Aside from being knocked down, it was a one-sided fight, with Roman giving Smalls a boxing lesson. The decision was atrocious. The judges’ scores were 98-91, 96-93, and 95-94. This decision should have gone the other way, as Roman outboxed, outpunched, and outclassed Smalls all the way through. Even in the third round, he was getting the better of Smalls until he was dropped.
- Super bantamweight Dennis Thompson (8-0, 5 KOs) utilized nonstop pressure to dominate Sean Diaz (9-1, 2 KOs), winning a six-round split decision in a competitive fight. Diaz showed excellent hand speed, but lacked the power, combination punching, and a jab to go along with it. Thompson used his huge size advantage, along with pressure, to keep Diaz on the back foot throughout the fight. Thompson hurt him to the body in round four. In the fifth, Diaz was docked a point for holding. In the same round, he got worked over by Thompson on the inside. The scores were 60-53 for Thompson, 57-56 for Diaz, and 57-56 for Thompson. It would have been a more interesting fight if Diaz had more size and power. He looked like a super flyweight fighting a large super bantamweight.