Vergil Ortiz Jr better than Jaron Ennis says Karen Chukhadzhian

By Jeff Sorby - 01/16/2023 - Comments

Karen Chukhadzhian says he feels that Vergil Ortiz Jr is a better fighter than Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, despite losing by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision by a shutout 120-108 x 3 score on January 7th.

Chukhadzhian (21-2, 11 KOs) feels that the popular ‘Boots’ Ennis (30-0, 27 KOs) has things he needs to work on after he exposed problems with his game in their co-feature bout on the Gervonta Davis vs. Hector Luis Garcia card in Washington, D.C.

While Chukhadzhian feels that Vergil is the superior fighter, he thinks that ‘Boots’ Ennis is more “versatile” because he can box as well as punch. He’d like to fight Ortiz if he had the chance, but unfortunately, that might not happen soon.

Ortiz already fought the similarly slick Michael McKinson recently, and he’s probably not going to want to fight a duplicate of him in Chukhadzhian.

The tricky Chukhadzhian believes that the 25-year-old Ennis “underestimated” him and didn’t plan on the fight going the full 12 rounds.

He says his game plan was to take away his jab and land counter shots. However, while he succeeded in the former, he failed to land counters and wound up losing by a lopsided decision.

At times, it looked like Ennis had failed to prepare for Chukhadzhian’s fighting style at all because he struggled to cut off the ring and was wasting time trying to target his head and having no luck.

Ennis should have focused his shots to the body instead of the head because he found success late in the fight going downstairs.

“The game plan was we move and not give him the opportunity to land his jab. No matter what stance he stay. It’s right jab or left jab. If he cannot find his jab, he cannot punch hard with his backhand,” said Karen Chukhadzhian to Fighthype about his game plan for his fight with Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis on January 7th.

“This part of the plan, we’re doing good. The second part of the plan was to counter him. The second part of the plan was for him to make a hit and then counter,” continued Chukhadzhian about his two plans for his losing effort against Boots Ennis.

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“It’s very hard because he has very good reflexes. When you counter him, he counter you, and it’s very hard to start the attack against him because he’s ready and he counter very good.

“I think he underestimated me. He didn’t think about it being twelve rounds. Anyway, if you want to be better, you must work, work, work, work. Maybe this fight gives him more experience, and maybe this fight gives his team something to think about and his work.

“He’s a smart guy, he has a good coach, and I think they will make work on their mistakes.

“It’ll be an interesting fight, but I think Errol Spence will win this fight,” said Chukhadzhian when asked his thoughts on Errol Spence Jr’s fight at 154 against Keith Thurman. “It’ll probably be a decision.

“Scorecards for me is no matter. If you lose one point or ten points, lose is lose,” said Chukhadzhian when asked if the scorecards should have been closer for his fight with Boots Ennis. “For me, I leave this for boxing experts. It will be great if the judges give me at least one round.

“I would with great pleasure fight against Vergil Ortiz,” said Chukhadzhian when asked who he would like to fight next. “It interests me. He has a nice punch, he knocks out everybody, so it would be very interesting to try him.

“After I fight Jaron, I can answer this question after five seconds. Vergil,” said Chukhadzhian when asked who is the better fighter between Jaron Ennis and Vergil Ortiz Jr. “Vergil is just an attacking guy, but Jaron can do more in the ring.

“He can counter; he can go fight. Versatile. Jaron is more versatile,” said Chukhadzhian.