Jaron Ennis had the best win of his boxing career over Xander Zayas but let’s look at some fundamentals and technical boxing notes.
Ennis proved a tiny bit of the hype was real on Saturday night.
Knocking out Xander Zayas, who was very weight-drained and won’t box at 154 pounds again many believe.
Zayas should not be boxing at super-weterweight anymore as the weight cut is too great for him.
Ennis knocked out Zayas in round 7 ultimately at the weekend.
If you look at Ennis in there he is realxed and assured in his style and has for a bigger man than Manny Pacquiao — some similarities.
The southpaw big hitting left hand style and so on.
He is not light on his feet at all like Pacquiao however and a little flat footed even sometimes.
He was fighting a very flat footed fighter in Xander Zayas at the weekend who came at him with flat feet basically.
Ennis is not Manny Pacquiao and does not have the same ability, speed, power (for his size) as the eight-division champion of the world.
Jaron Ennis carries his hands extremely low as well.
Pacquiao has a much higher, tighter guard and defense and parry’s shots coming at him as well sometimes.
Hence why Ennis was getting caught not just in the pocket and in exchanges with Zayas at the weekend — but at distance too.
Ennis paws with the jab at times and right hook as well and is sloppy with both.
Even though the right hook ended the fight with Zayas there is not enough snap on it from Ennis at times.
He uses the jab as too much of a range finder as well and could be sharper with it.
He mixes up his attacks to body and head well and his punch variation in switching from body to head attacks is impressive.
He does this often from middle to long distance which is rare to see, and again, impressive.
However the main tool in his arsenal is the straight left hand. He is very effective and powerful with it when it lands.
There is a lot of speed in it now up at 154 pounds where he is not killing himself to make weight anymore.
It is similar to the big left hand of Manny Pacquiao’s — a real lethal booming shot over the shoulder with venom and a lot of speed.
Don’t blink and you will miss it.
Ennis walks forward in straight lines a bit too much though and while he can slip a jab here and there, there is not enough head movement from him.
He got caught a lot by a weak punching Zayas at the weekend and if that was a genuine puncher in there, he would have been knocked out.
Ennis needs to step off to the side after he gets his shots and combinations off and set up his attacks with a more subtle approach.
He hangs back and then just comes forward in straight lines and walks back in straight lines more or less.
Relying on his hand speed basically and his power.
His punch resistance is very questionable too.
As he was wobbled in there at times and hurt badly by a light puncher like Xander Zayas.
Big hitting boxer Vergil Ortiz for instance would have knocked out Jaron Ennis if he landed if it were him in there with him Saturday night.
Boots Ennis is owhere near the pound for pound number one boxer in the world like he said going into the fight before hand.
154 pounds boxing hampion Jaron Ennis is just about in the top 10 pound for pound rankings in the Boxing News and Views list for now.
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