'Boots' Ennis crowns himself best fighter in 147-pound division with dominant win over Stanionis

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'Boots' Ennis crowns himself best fighter in 147-pound division with dominant win over Stanionis

2025-04-13 12:45 Last Updated At：12:51

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Boxing is ready for a reboot — “Boots” is more like it — in the welterweight division.

Not only did Atlantic City get new life for its long storied, yet stagnant, big-fight history, Jaron Ennis cashed in as the undisputed best in the 147-pound division.

Ennis crowned himself the best fighter at 147 pounds when he stopped Eimantas Stanionis after six rounds and claimed three shares of the welterweight division crown with a decisive win Saturday night in boxing's return to Atlantic City.

Ennis ran his record to 34-0 after the fight was waved off once Stanionis was unable to continue after the sixth. Ennis sent Stanionis to the ropes and down to one knee with a series of left-handed uppercuts and body shots. Ennis stumbled Stanionis with a big blow to the body right before the bell — and the Philly fighter stared him down as he strutted to the corner.

The seventh round never came after Stanionis' corner decided the Lithuanian could not continue.

“When I fight top-of-the-line guys, good guys, that's what you're going to see,” Ennis said. “You're going to see a whole different me. When I'm in my ring, I'm in my heavy place. When I've got a top guy and I'm fighting for something, it's a whole different story. Can't nobody mess with me.”

Ennis soon covered his body in three three championship belts.

“Is this what y'all looking for,” Ennis asked.

Ennis, out of northwest Philadelphia and a rising star in the sport, was already the IBF welterweight champion and he took the WBA and Ring Magazine away from Stanionis (15-1). Ennis said in the ring following the signature victory he sorely needed to throw himself into the pound-for-pound conversation that it was too early to decide if he would move up in weight class.

There was a decided Philly flavor in Boardwalk Hall for Ennis' unification victory. “Boots” was accompanied to the ring by Philadelphia 76ers All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey — who draped the IBF belt over his right shoulder for the ring walk — and Philly rapper Meek Mill's music played between rounds.

“Me and Maxey are kind of cool,” Ennis said. “This summer, we're going to try and help him out and get ready for the next season.”

The 27-year-old Ennis has won eight straight fights overall and made four straight successful title defenses since he defeated Ukrainian fighter Karen Chukhadzhian for the championship in January 2023.

The 30-year-old Stanionis, who represented Lithuania in the 2016 Olympic Games, was elevated to full WBA champion in August when Terence Crawford vacated the WBA belt.

Boardwalk Hall hadn't held a major title fight since Sergey Kovalev beat Bernard Hopkins on Nov. 8, 2014, in a light heavyweight championship bout. Eleider Alvarez beat Kovalev and won the 175-pound championship by knockout at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in 2018 in what can be generously described as the last big-time bout in Atlantic City.

As Atlantic City casinos withered over the last dozen or so years, so did interest in hosting boxing cards.

T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center in New York host some of the biggest domestic cards while the true headline bouts — topped by Tyson Fury’s win over Francis Ngannou in October 2023 — are held in Saudi Arabia. Celebrity bouts such as Jake Paul’s win over a 58-year-old Tyson have become the rage and can pack 70,000 fans inside a football stadium — though an expected sellout crowd of about 10,000 fans brought the building to life Saturday night.

Ennis was raised in the Germantown section of Philadelphia and was a Golden Gloves gold medalist as an amateur. He made his pro debut in 2016. As for that Boots nickname? His dad was a boxer and Ennis picked it up as a kid when he tagged along to training sessions in the gym.

Ennis headlined a card in July that attracted a surprising 14,119 fans in Philadelphia to the Wells Fargo Center and his next bout in November at the home of the Flyers and 76ers saw that number dip to about 10,000 fans at the fight.

He's has been vocal about wanting to fight Errol Spence Jr. or Crawford in any weight class. He’d also like a shot at Canelo Alvarez. Ennis also hasn’t ruled out a move up in weight class to 154 pounds.

Ennis said he would wait to talk to his team before deciding what's next for him. With Maxey celebrating with him in the ring, Ennis can enjoy for now being the best at 147.

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Jury is picked for Karen Read's retrial over death of police boyfriend, opening statements next week

2025-04-16 19:28 Last Updated At：19:31

The jury has been picked in Karen Read’s second murder trial over the death of her police officer boyfriend, with opening statements scheduled for next week.

An 18-member panel — nine men and nine women — was chosen by Tuesday. There will be 12 jurors and six alternates.

Opening statements are scheduled for April 22.

Read’s attorneys had filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court for a delay in the trial, contending that trying her again on second-degree murder and leaving the scene would be double jeopardy. The high court denied the delay and is expected to consider her appeal April 25.

Read, who lives in Mansfield, Massachusetts, is accused of striking her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV and leaving him to die in a snowstorm in 2022 outside a house party in nearby Canton. Her attorneys have said O’Keefe was actually killed by someone else, possibly another law enforcement agent who was at the party, and that she was framed.

Last year, the judge declared a mistrial after jurors said they were at an impasse and deliberating further would be futile.

After the trial, several jurors came forward to say the group was unanimous in finding Read not guilty of the most serious charge, second-degree murder, and a lesser charge. Despite attempts by Read’s lawyers to get those charges dismissed, she will face the same counts as she did at her first trial. They also failed to have the entire case tossed, arguing governmental misconduct.

Read, who worked as a financial analyst and as a Bentley College adjunct professor before she was charged, faces second-degree murder and other charges in the death of John O’Keefe, who was 46 when he died. The 16-year police veteran was found unresponsive outside the home of a fellow Boston police officer.

After a night out drinking, prosecutors say Read, who is 45, dropped off O’Keefe at the house party just after midnight. As she made a three-point turn, prosecutors say, she struck O’Keefe before driving away. She returned hours later to find him in a snowbank.

As they did at the first trial, prosecutors will try to convince jurors that Read’s actions were intentional. They are expected to call witnesses who will describe how the couple's relationship had begun to sour before O'Keefe's death. Among them will be his brother, who testified during the first trial that the couple regularly argued over such matters as what Read fed O’Keefe’s children, and that he witnessed a 2021 fight the couple had in Cape Cod over how his brother treated her. The brother's wife testified that Read told her the couple had argued in Aruba after she caught O’Keefe kissing another woman.

The defense is expected to portray the investigation into O’Keefe’s death as shoddy and undermined by the close relationship investigators had with the police officers and other law enforcement agents who were at the house party.

Among the key witnesses they will call is former State Trooper Michael Proctor, who led the investigation but has since been fired after a disciplinary board found he sent sexist and crude texts about Read to his family and colleagues. He is also on the prosecution's witness list.

A key moment in the first trial was Proctor’s testimony, in which the defense suggested his texts about Read and the case showed he was biased, and had singled her out early in the investigation and ignored other potential suspects.

They also are expected to suggest Read was framed, saying O’Keefe was actually killed inside the home during a fight with another partygoer and then dragged outside. In the first trial, defense attorneys suggested investigators focused on Read because she was a “convenient outsider” who saved them from having to consider law enforcement officers as suspects.

Ahead of the second trial, the two sides sparred over whether Read's lawyers will be allowed to argue that someone else killed O'Keefe. Judge Beverly Cannone ruled Monday that attorneys can't mention potential third-party culprits in their opening statements but will be allowed to develop evidence against Brian Albert, a retired police officer who owned the Canton home, and his friend Brian Higgins. Lawyers cannot implicate Albert's nephew, Colin Albert, the judge said.

A town-commissioned Canton Police Department audit following O'Keefe's death was released March 30. While not reinvestigating any cases, its top suggestions regarding Read's were that first responders should have photographed O'Keefe where he was found before he was moved; that all interviews of “critical witnesses” should have been done at the department after O'Keefe was taken to a hospital; and that agreed-to recordings of witness interviews be conducted.

Soon after the mistrial, Read's lawyers set out to get the main charges dropped.

They argued Judge Cannone declared a mistrial without polling the jurors to confirm their conclusions. Defense attorney Martin Weinberg said five jurors indicated after the trial that they were only deadlocked on the manslaughter count and had unanimously agreed that she wasn’t guilty of second-degree murder and leaving the scene, but that they hadn’t told the judge.

The defense said that because jurors had agreed Read wasn't guilty of murder and leaving the scene, retrying her on those counts would amount to double jeopardy. But Cannone rejected that argument, as did the state's highest court, a federal court judge, and an appeals court.

Prosecutors had urged Cannone to dismiss the double jeopardy claim, saying it amounted to "hearsay, conjecture and legally inappropriate reliance as to the substance of jury deliberations.” Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally argued that the jurors never indicated they had reached a verdict on any of the charges, were given clear instructions on how to reach a verdict, and that the defense had ample opportunity to object to the mistrial declaration.

The second trial will likely look similar to the first. It will be held in the same courthouse before the same judge, and dozens of Read's passionate supporters are again expected to rally outside. The charges, primary defense lawyers and many of the nearly 200 witnesses will also be the same.

The biggest difference will be the lead prosecutor, Hank Brennan. A former prosecutor and defense attorney who was brought in as a special prosecutor after the mistrial, Brennan has represented several prominent clients, including notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, and experts think he might be more forceful than Lally was in arguing the case.