Ukrainian fighter of the welterweight division (up to 66.7 kg) Karen Chukhadzhyan (21-2, 11 KOs) just over a week ago fought for the title of “interim” IBF champion against American Jaron Ennis (30-0, 27 KOs), in which he lost on points by unanimous decision.
After returning home, Karen gave an interview for LuckyPunch, which was subsequently
published on the youtube channel Mixed Zone by Dream Bigger. The fighter told why he accepted this fight, spoke about his impressions of the fight, told what he succeeded and what did not succeed in the fight against the top opponent, and also appreciated the skills of his American colleague.
Report from vRINGe: Ennis-Chukhadjian: He doesn’t bark, he bites!
– When you were told about the possibility of a duel with Ennis, what were your emotions?
– Of course, I was delighted. First, this is a great opportunity. Second, we didn’t have any other options. Fesher broke up, we had to go somewhere to box, because we won’t go anywhere if we hit … Well, this is such a German topic, a very cautious approach. And I wanted to go somewhere to box with someone, to speed up this moment a little. Because I didn’t want to go out to some very big fight when I was already over 30. I want to go out now to understand what the level of boxing is in America right now. And I can get away with it somehow. I understood what level is there and where I need to go in terms of development.
– Well, yes, that is, now this fight, although a defeat, but for you it can be the starting point for a serious level.
Yes, this is a great experience for me. I, of course, agreed. The coach said that there was not enough time, but that we should refuse. We could refuse, but it is not clear how long we would have to wait for the fight and what kind of fight it would be. So we jumped at this opportunity.
– You had an impression about Ennis before the fight, now tell us, what are your impressions after the fight?
– In principle, my impression has not changed. He is a good boxer. He has a punch, he has good reflexes, that is, nothing has changed for me. I, in principle, expected that he would underestimate me, that he did not see me as an opponent. All the American journalists said that I would be knocked out before the third round. I think, and he thought so, because he said at a press conference that he watches a lot of Tyson. Maybe he didn’t even watch my fights.
What are your general impressions of the fight?
– I’m not satisfied, of course, because I lost. But I’m glad I got that experience.
- “It wasn’t Ennis who was bad, it was Choukhadzhian who was very good.” Exclusive interview with Vyacheslav Senchenko
– Look, you lost – this is the result, but how do you like the boxing that you showed? You and Slava (Senchenko) were preparing something, you were preparing a plan, are you satisfied with this?
— The plan was to move the body. I needed to eliminate his front arm. It doesn’t matter which stance, left-handed or right-handed, but we needed to eliminate the front hand. Because he is not a jabber, he does not have such a super hard jab, for example, like Andrei Velikovsky, who hits the jab so that porridge is in his head. No, he doesn’t have such a super hard jab, but he finds distance with this jab and already with his back hand … He has very long arms and there is such an amplitude to land a good blow. That is, he hits straight punches very hard, and from below he hits punches well. Therefore, by eliminating the front hand, we do not allow him to adjust to hit the back. Such was the moment. We got through it. Failed to attack. I couldn’t adjust. One of the tasks was to pull it out and carry out your attack. I failed it, failed a lot, but did not use it. It’s just hard to launch an attack against him. That is, if he is waiting for your attack, then it is very difficult to start, hit him, because he is ready. For example, he attacks – I counterattack, and he counterattacks to counterattack due to some kind of animal reflexes. It was just difficult to launch an attack. Here I failed.
– On your feet you worked really mega cool. All the comments that are there and I, with my humble point of view, will say that it’s very cool to work out the whole fight like this on your feet. Yes, at the end of the fight he got a little hooked, but very cool. If you had added with a blow, it would have been a bomb in general.
Yes, I didn’t. Not because I was afraid that he would knock me out now. No, I was not afraid to miss a beat. I just wanted to outbox him. But already in the twelfth round I stopped, because I had nothing to lose. We messed up a little. Well, this is the last chance.
– Did you feel his blow, which scares everyone?
– Well, he has a hit, yes. Hits pretty hard. He hit me in the forehead with an uppercut in one of the rounds. I thought he hit me. No, I didn’t cut it, but then there was such a lump. But it’s gone in 2 days. But there were no such direct hard blows to ring. There were such as outbreaks, several times. But so that I was led, then no. But once in the tenth round he missed the body. He gave me well. Somewhere I stood up frontally and he gave me between the hands, then I felt it.