Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis and Eimantas Stanionis are close to a dual belt, IBF and WBO, welterweight unification fight for April.
Ennis-Stanionis In April?
IBF champion Boots Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) will face the first high-quality opponent of his career if this is made, and it will be interesting for fans to see how he reacts to the power and pressure of WBA 147 – lb champion Stanionis (15-0, 9 KOs).
If the fight is made, it will be a Matchroom show on DAZN. Whether it will be put on PPV is questionable because Stanionis is not well known. Boots has yet to reach that level due to his lackluster opposition throughout his nine-year professional career.
Ennis, 27, has drawn a lot of criticism for his decision not to fight WBC interim junior middleweight champion Vergil Ortiz Jr. on Turki Al-Sheikh’s Feb. 22 card on DAZN PPV in Riyadh. Rumor has it Boots has been offered a career-high payday $8 million, which is a crazy amount for him to turn down.
But he wants to unify the welterweight division to collect all four belts before moving up, and he vows to finish what he started, come hell or high water. You hope Jaron doesn’t live to regret it later.
Can boots handle Stanionis?
“Will we finally get that Unification match at welterweight he’s been waiting for?” Bernardo Osuna told the State of boxingtalking about Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis wanting a unification fight against WBA champion Eimantas Stanionis or one of the other champions.
“They’re getting closer for sure, and it’s a very tough test for Boots. He’s looking at a fight against Eimantas Stanionis, who I think is one of the most underrated fighters in all of boxing,” said Mike Coppinger. “He lost all of 2023 after several fights against Vergil Ortiz were cancelled, and I’m told they’re closing a deal for a fight in April. No deal yet.
“It’s a big step up for Boots, which nobody has fought hard yet. Stanionis brings the pressure; he can hit, and I hope the fight is going to be over. It will be a Matchroom show on DAZN,” said Coppinger.
It’s a big step for Ennis, who he’s faced for the past nine years, and it’s not certain that he’s going to win this fight. Stanionis is a good fighter with power, and Boots gets hit a lot in his fights. He depends on his offense being his defense, and those types of fighters don’t do well in the long run.
Eventually they run into someone with too much power, and they get knocked out. What was surprising was how Ennis was eased by Karen Chukhadzhian in his last fight on November 9, and he is not known for being a big puncher.
Finally step on
“It’s time for Boots to get in the ring with someone,” said Tim Bradley. “I can tell you that. He had many opportunities to get in the ring with many guys, Vergil Ortiz, but he chose not to. This was clearly his plan from the beginning. He wants to unify titles against Stanionis.”
Bradley is right. It’s time for Ennis to finally fight someone, because it sure looked poor how he turned down the fight against Vergil Jr on February 22nd.
“I just finished studying film four days ago. It’s going to be an exciting battle,” Bradley said. “Stanionis is an up and coming fighter, very aggressive. He throws punches in bunches. He can hit hard with both hands, but so can Boots. But the difference is that Stanionis, I don’t think he understands trigonometry.
“He doesn’t understand angles. He doesn’t understand how to get himself into a different position because all he knows is gas and no brake,” Bradley said of Stanionis’ flaws.
