Jaron Ennis delivered an absolute banger tonight in front of the roaring crowd of his hometown, Philadelphia. The undefeated IBF welterweight champion successfully defended his title by knocking out David Avanesyan in the fifth round of his Matchroom Boxing debut fight. And guess what? Terence Crawford, Shakur Stevenson and others took notice!

From the onset, ‘Boots’ Ennis dominated, pressuring his opponent as a record-breaking crowd of 14,119 fans gathered at the Wells Fargo Center. This was the largest boxing crowd in Philadelphia in 46 years, since Marvin Hagler and Bennie Briscoe drew 14,930 at the Spectrum. And let’s just say they weren’t disappointed.

Homecoming Heroics: Jaron Ennis stuns the hometown crowd

It was Ennis’ first fight at home and first since July last year, but that didn’t seem to have affected his performance as he ended the fight with a highlight reel knockout. In the final moments of round five, Ennis landed a perfect counter left hook on Avanesyan’s chin, which sent the Russian crashing onto the canvas.

To Avanesyan’s credit, he beat the ten count and made it out of the round. However, at the beginning of round six, ringside physicians advised stopping the fight. Reporter Cross Mannix, who was ringside for the fight, suggested Avanesyan may have a broken jaw, which played a role in stopping the fight. Regardless, fans flocked with opinions when Matchroom shared the update on social media.

David Avanesyan dazed, fans buzzing 

Undefeated Ennis would love nothing more than to secure a fight against Terence Crawford to establish his legacy by defeating one of the best, but is Crawford willing? After the fight, Terence Crawford hopped on X to suggest Ennis was nowhere near being a world class fighter, mocking promoter Eddie Hearn for pitting Ennis against the best. Interestingly, Crawford had also fought Avanesyan in December 2022, winning the fight via 6th round KO.

Meanwhile, Crawford’s friend and training partner Shakur Stevenson chimed in. Unlike Crawford, Stevenson was impressed with Ennis’ performance, praising Ennis’ speed, power and work in the pocket. There’s a chance ‘Bud’ won’t like this one!

Even Andre Berto, with whom Stevenson got embroiled in an online beef recently, suggested Ennis’ performance was an old school Philadelphia beat down. However, Ennis did get caught with some big shots here and there.

At the same time, fans had their own thoughts about the fight. One user claimed there were too many holes in Ennis’ defense, something Crawford could easily take advantage of. 

The following user has a similar opinion, who claimed Ennis got hit too many times, and if it was Crawford doing the hitting, things would have turned out a lot different. Crawford has shown he can outclass the best of the best after he defeated Errol Spence Jr. Last year, so the user has a point here.

Despite what is clearly a world class performance, Jaron Ennis seems to have failed in swaying public opinion on his side for a potential Terence Crawford fight. Regardless, Stevenson and Berto seemed awestruck with Ennis’ beat down. What did you think? Is Ennis ready for Crawford?