Germantown's Ennis shapes up to defend title against Rosado

USBA junior middleweight champion Derek "Pooh" Ennis is a "hungry" fighter again, and for once that description has a positive connotation.

Talented and long ticketed for stardom, Ennis occasionally has seen his career path sidetracked by his stubbornness in giving up the fast foods and other high-calorie fare that he loves but make it difficult to make weight.

There was the time when Ennis, who had signed for a Feb. 16, 2007, fight with Allen Conyers in Miami, Okla., had to take off a whopping 33 pounds in just 3 weeks. He came in 3 ounces over, somehow sweated the excess weight off his already-bone-dry body in the allotted 3-hour period, and made it to the opening bell. He didn't survive long after that, though, being stopped in two rounds.

Perhaps even more notoriously, on April 2009, Ennis came in 4 pounds over the contracted weight for a fight with Ishmail Arvin at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. When Arvin declined a purse sweetener to proceed against the heavier Ennis, promoter Diane Lee Fischer had no choice but to cancel the evening's main event.

"I didn't have enough time to get a replacement overnight," Fischer recalled. "I had to get up before 1,500 people and tell them the marquee fight was off."

But in defending his fringe 154-pound title against North Philadelphia's "King" Gabriel Rosado (14-4, 8 KOs) tonight at the Arena in South Philly, Ennis (21-2-1, 13 KOs) is back in fighting trim - and he'll be that way for all future bouts, said co-manager Moz Gonzalez.

"Derek is in the best shape of his career," Gonzalez insisted. "He had some issues earlier in his career with making weight, but that's all in the past."

It had better be the case. At 29, Ennis is a mite long in the tooth to still be regarded as a "prospect," and, world-rated (No. 12) only by the IBF, the time for the Germantown resident to make a move toward major contention is now.

But Rosado has his own plans for upward mobility. He's only 24, and his list of victims includes former IBF junior middleweight champ Kassim Ouma and highly regarded Saul Roman.

"Bragging rights in the city is all well and good, but what I'm really after is the USBA title and the world ranking that comes with it," Rosado said.

Promoter J Russell Peltz, who has staged fight cards in Philadelphia since 1969, said Ennis-Rosado is a return to not only his roots, but to what made this arguably America's best fight town.

"In 1961, when I was 14, my dad took me to the old Arena at 46th and Market to see Harold Johnson defend his light-heavyweight title against Von Clay," Peltz said. "Johnson was from Manayunk and Clay was from West Philadelphia. [Johnson won on a second-round stoppage.] It was the second time I had been to a fight in person and the first time at an all-Philly showdown. There were plenty to follow."

Not so many have taken place of late, which is why Peltz sees this eight-bout card - North Philly junior lightweight Anthony Flores (8-1-1, 5 KOs) and Kensington super middleweight Dennis "The Assassin" Hasson (9-0, 3 KOs) appear in separate six-rounders - as a reintroduction to the way things used to be here, and maybe ought to be again.