IBF welterweight champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis (32-0, 29 KOs) is better off staying at 147 rather than venturing up to 154 to gamble in the shark-infested waters in that deep division. Staying at 147 is Boots Ennis’ best shot at becoming a star, and he has a much better chance of staying undefeated longer than if he moves up.
It doesn’t matter if Ennis never unifies the welterweight division. Holding onto just his one piece of real estate with his IBF belt is about the same as capturing the other belts against obscure, no talented champions to hold those belts.
The casual fans have no idea who Mario Barrios, Eimantas Stanionis and Brian Norman Jr. are. is not So there is no benefit to Boots uniting the division against these little-known belt holders. Those fighters might as well hold trinket titles because the casual fans don’t know who they are, and it’s doubtful they ever will be.
“Karen asked for this fight. He went through the process of making it happen. He fought in those stupid IBF eliminators that put you in a position to get this kind of opportunity,” Chris Mannix told DAZN Boxing about Karen Chukhadzhian wanting the rematch with IBF welterweight champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis.
“I don’t blame him for that because he’s probably getting paid six what he’s been getting paid for his last few fights. The real problem is a sanctioning body that allows something like this to happen. It leaves a guy who kicked his (backside) over 12 rounds to fight some low-level fights to be right back in position to be the mandatory challenger,” Mannix continued of Chukhadzhian.
Of course, Chukhadzhian wanted the rematch with Boots Ennis because it’s a title shot and a guaranteed good payday for a lot more money than he got with the 24 scrubs he beat to build his 24-2 record. If the International Boxing Federation is going to make it easy for fighters to become mandatory challengers without having to fight anyone dangerous, why wouldn’t Chukhadzhian take advantage of that?
“They did kick the tires at 154. They (Team Ennis) were talking about a Charles Conwell fight,” Mannix said of Ennis and his team considering a move to 154 but then changing their minds . “They talked about fighting other guys at 154. There just wasn’t a big fight out there for him at 154, and right now that belt is currency. When you’re a champion, you can do a few things with it.”
What Mannix doesn’t say is that the fights that Ennis could get would be very difficult and risky fights that he could lose. Indeed, there are no popular fighters at 154 that would guarantee Boots Ennis a huge mega-million payday. What’s also true, though, is that there are fighters at 154 who could possibly beat Ennis, and they’re doing it brutally by knocking him out. Ennis can be knocked out if he moves up and fights this big punch:
– Serhii Bohachuk
– Bakhram Murtazaliev
– Israel Madrimov
– Vergil Ortiz Jr.
– Sebastian Fundora
– Charles Conwell
We saw what ‘Little GGG’ Madrimov did to Terence Crawford. He punched the stuffing out of the Omaha, Nebraska, native and messed up his face so badly he looked like he’d been run over. Whatever ambition Crawford had to become the undisputed champion at 154 was driven out of him by the punishment he took against Madrimov.
Boots Ennis would get the same treatment, but he might not stop. He wouldn’t run around the ring like Crawford did to survive Madrimov’s big punches. Ennis would actually try to fight, and it could end badly for him.
“You can look at it and say, ‘Okay, Brian Norman. Good, Stanionis. Okay, Barrios. It’s 2025. Let’s start fresh, get these negotiations going and make these unifications happen. The path for the biggest fights for Boots still involves him having that belt,” Mannix said.
Holding the IBF title doesn’t guarantee that Ennis will get unification fights against any of those champions without his promoter Eddie Hearn coming up with the bread to get those champions interested in fighting him. Hearn has shown no desire to pay the kind of money the other champions are asking to face Boots.
If Ennis vacates his IBF title and moves up to 154, there is no guarantee he will be the same fighter in that division. They hit harder at junior middleweight, and the division is full of fighters who have the same kind of talent as Ennis. This may be the reason why Ennis and his father chose not to give up the IBF belt.
They know it Life can be hard at 154and Ennis may fall apart once he begins to taste the power of the killers Bakhram Murtazaliev, Israil Madrimov, Vergil Ortiz Jr and Serhii Bohachuk. You can count out old timer Terence Crawford as he clearly gave up on fighting the young talent after getting a taste of how powerful and hungry they are at 154 in his fight against Madrimov on August 3rd. Crawford is now just waiting for a handout from Canelo Alvarez. If he doesn’t get that fight, he’ll likely retire.
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