Stanonis's retirement in his corner following the sixth round returned Ennis to his previous status. While Ennis wishes to face one of the remaining champions in the division (WBC's Mario Barrios and WBO's Brian Norman), neither appears to be in the class of Ennis.
A fight against Barrios would be a foregone conclusion, in my opinion, and a match against Norman, while interesting, Norman lacks the polish and experience to deal with the Philadelphian.
Stanonis pressed forward on Ennis and landed a few strong punches, and Ennis will need to improve his defense when he eventually moves to junior middleweight, but Ennis was stronger, quicker, and his bodywork paid off in the sixth when Stanonis was sent to one knee late in the round.
Stanonis's team ended the fight after the round, and while some thought that decision may have been a little premature, Ennis had taken the battle out of Stanonis and would have finished the fight in the rounds to come, so the team was looking after the safety and future of their man.
Boots is back at the top, and hopefully, a fight with Brian Norman (I see no way PBC puts Mario Barrios with Ennis) can be made quickly to unify three of the four titles in the welterweight division.
In the co-feature, former WBA featherweight champion Raymond Ford continued his career as a junior lightweight with an easy, unanimous decision win over Thomas Mattice.
Ford badly hurt Mattice in the opening round but was unable to finish him, which led to the next nine less than thrilling rounds.
All three judges (and myself) scored Ford the winner by the score of 100-90
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