ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey – Jaron Ennis defiantly posed questions at the start of his post-fight press conference early Sunday morning at Boardwalk Hall.

“This was what y’all was waitin’ for?,” Ennis asked the group of assembled reporters and videographers. “This was what y’all looking for?”

The 27-year-old Philadelphia native knew the answers. He heard and read consistent criticism for the first time in nine years as a pro after the IBF welterweight champion beat Ukrainian contender Karen Chukhadzhian convincingly, yet less impressively than the first time, in their 12-round rematch November 9 at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

The explosive, powerful Ennis responded the only way he knew how – by battering a fellow undefeated welterweight champion into submission Saturday night. His technical knockout of Eimantas Stanionis was the type of dominant, persuasive performance Ennis promised he would produce whenever a top welterweight finally agreed to fight him.

“I’ll beat anybody in the world,” Ennis said during the abovementioned press conference. “I’m the best fighter in the world. I keep saying it. These fighters can’t mess with me.”

His most noteworthy victory earned Ennis the previously vacant Ring championship and the WBA belt Stanionis won nearly three years ago. Ennis isn’t on The Ring’s pound-for-pound list, but both he and his promoter, Eddie Hearn, are certain his domination of Stanionis has earned him a place among every outlet’s top 10.

Ennis wanted to prove himself against undisputed welterweight champ Terence Crawford before Crawford moved up to junior middleweight and eventually super middleweight. Former welterweight champions Errol Spence Jr., Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia weren’t exactly eager to fight Ennis, either, when he fought on Premier Boxing Champions cards from September 2020 until July 2023.

Eimantas Stanionis answered Ennis’ call for a willing welterweight champion to step into the ring with him. That destructive decision left the native Lithuanian with the first loss on his professional record.

Ennis (34-0, 30 KOs, 1 NC) became the first fighter to send Stanionis (15-1, 9 KOs, 1 NC) to the canvas as an amateur or professional. Two left uppercuts to the body, followed by a left uppercut that snapped back Stanionis’ head, dropped Stanionis to one knee with 33 seconds to go on the clock in the sixth round.

Stanionis reached his feet almost immediately, but he was battered, bloodied and demoralized once the former WBA champion returned to his corner. That’s when trainer Marvin Somodio told referee David Fields to stop their scheduled 12-round bout to spare Stanionis from taking excessive punishment.

“I really was just like getting in my bag, gettin’ in my groove for real, for real,” Ennis said. “Like I said before, none of these fighters can mess with me. I’m the best in the world.”

Ennis’ defense was also much tighter versus Stanionis than in his previous two appearances last year – a fifth-round stoppage of Russia’s David Avanesyan (31-5-1, 19 KOs) and the abovementioned unanimous points victory over Chukhadzhian (24-3, 13 KOs). Aware of Stanionis’ power, particularly with hooks, a mindful Ennis slipped plenty of punches, took Stanionis’ shots without incident when the 2016 Olympian landed and stymied Stanionis with an array of power punches to his head and body for six rounds.

“We knew what he was coming to do – put pressure, jab, hook,” Ennis said. “That’s about it. Try and throw punches on the inside, and I took all that away from him. I just went in there and had fun puttin’ on a show.”

Ennis needs WBC champ Mario Barrios (29-2-1, 18 KOs) and WBO champ Brian Norman Jr. (27-0, 21 KOs, 1 NC) to accept his challenges if he is to become boxing’s second undisputed welterweight champion of the four-belt era. Hearn expects Ennis to have cleaned out the welterweight division by this time next year and then to take the biggest fights available within the loaded 154-pound division.

The ambitious Ennis is willing to battle rival Vergil Ortiz Jr. (23-0, 21 KOs) or any other formidable junior middleweight once he moves up seven pounds.

“I’ll beat anybody in the world,” Ennis reiterated. “I’m the best fighter in the world. I keep saying it. These fighters can’t mess with me.”