Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis’ growth as a fighter will be tested by Karen Chukhadzhian in their rematch on November 9 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
In Ennis’ fight against Chukhadzhian (24-2, 13 KOs) last year on January 7th, he was unable to cut off the ring and missed badly with home run swings and attempts to knock him out. Boots Ennis won every round of the fight but did not look impressive.
The rematch will see Boots (32-0, 29 KOs) defend his IBF welterweight title against Chukhadzhian in the main event, and fans will see if he has upped his game.
“What is the superfight for him? Let’s look at it realistically. This is not Terence Crawford. He’s not going to fight Boots unless it’s ridiculous money, and he’s going to take it,” commentator Ade Oladipo said. DAZN Boxingtalk about who the superfight is for Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis. “Is it one of the big 140 guys that shows up? Is that Teofimo Lopez? Is this the fight he’s looking for?”
“I don’t think there’s a superfight out there for him right now because I don’t think there’s a superfight potential at 140 or 154,” Chris Mannix said of Ennis. “I think his bigger fights are going to be at 154. He wants to be a unified champion before moving up. So, I think he wants to get one more title shot.”
There are no superfights for Ennis at 147, and he makes things more difficult for himself by choosing not to move up to 154. The best fights are at junior middleweight for Ennis, and he has to understand that at 147 he’s going to be shunned by the best fighters in the division.
“I think Brian Norman is his most likely opponent out there. I think they can get over the line (in the negotiations). I think when you’re Boots, you can’t think about mega-fights,” Mannix said. “You have to think about good fights. Right now he hasn’t been in a good to really good fight.”
Hearn failed to negotiate a unification fight with the WBO welterweight champion after opting not to increase his offer from $1.7 million to $2.2 million for a bout with Ennis. He seems to believe that Norman Jr. will eventually lower his asking price, but that might not happen, and Ennis isn’t getting any younger.
If Hearn can’t make that fight next or against one of the other champions for Ennis, he should move up to 154 and try to get fights against the top guys in that division.
“He’s been in some decent fights, but he hasn’t been in a title fight yet. He hasn’t been in a world title fight at 154. He hasn’t been with someone like Vergil Ortiz, which I think is a super fight for him at some point down the line,” Mannix said.
If and when that happens, Vergil Ortiz Jr will be an excellent fight for Ennis. Promoter Eddie Hearn responded to rumors that Ennis fought Ortiz in February, saying that it was not true, but he would like to make that fight. This may require His Excellency Turki Alalshikh to step forward to fund it, as Vergil Jr. won’t take on a risky battle against Boots without it being a big money deal.
“In this fight against Chukhadzhian, I think we will learn if Boots Ennis grows. When I watched the first fight with Chukhadzhian, he didn’t know how to cut off the ring. He chased the guy and that allowed Chukhadzhian to go the full 12 rounds. This fight, he knows what the guy is going to do. He knows how he’s going to fight,” Mannix said.
Ennis, 27, has fought two sluggers, Roiman Villa and David Avanesyan, since his fight against Chukhadzhian last year, but he didn’t have to cut the ring against them because they were right in front of him. He did take a lot of hits in both of those fights, and looked vulnerable on defense.
“We’re going to find out if Boots has grown his game to the point where he can cut that ring off and the kind of hits that guy can take,” Mannix said of Boots and Chukhadzhian.
Boots did not look improved in his recent fight against David Avanesyan on July 13th. He was the same fighter who worked to an unimpressive 12-round unanimous decision against Chukhadzhian last year on January 7, 2023.
Avanesysan, 35, was too old to take advantage of the holes in Ennis’ game that Karen had exposed earlier, but he did land plenty of punches on him before being stopped in the fifth round in Philadelphia.
