The Vergil Ortiz Jr. vs. Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis and Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez vs. Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez double-header is reportedly possible for early 2025, on February 22, in a Riyadh season event in Saudi Arabia.
WBC interim junior middleweight champion Vergil Jr.’s trainer Robert Garcia told Boxingscene about a possible double kick. This will be an interesting battle card.
Some fans may be critical of Bam Rodriguez fighting 37-year-old Chocolatito Gonzalez (54-4, 42 KOs), as this highly touted legend is well past his prime, nearing 38, and has lost two of his last four fights.
24-year-old Bam Rodriguez is much younger than Chocolatito, and there is a mismatch in where the two fighters are at this point in their careers. Bam has beaten many older fighters, and it will be sad to see him use Chocolatito as a stepping stone.
Will Ennis stay at 154?
If it does, it will be interesting to see if Ennis (32-0, 29 KOs) chooses to stay at 154 or if it’s just a one-off. He says he wants to unify the welterweight division by capturing all four belts, but it doesn’t look like that will happen without the Saudis’ help in luring the other champions to fight him.
If Ennis chooses to stay at 154 if he successfully defeats Vergil Ortiz (22-0, 21 KOs), he will put himself in position for big fights against Terence Crawford, Sebastian Fundora, Israil Madrimov, Bakhram Murtazaliev and Tim Tszyu.
There are endless big-money fight possibilities available to 27-year-old Boots Ennis if he chooses to stay at junior middleweight after a potential fight against Vergil Jr. on February 22.
Vergil is coming off a controversial 12-round majority decision victory over WBC interim 154-lb champion Serhii Bohachuk on August 10 in Las Vegas.
The boxing world saw this as a robbery and believed that the judges were favoring the more popular Ortiz Jr. given the win because he was younger, better known and had a higher upside than foreign fighter Bohachuk. What made the win worse was that Vergil chose not to give Bohachuk a rematch to clear up the controversy.
Despite being a world champion and seen as a bright future, Boots Ennis will likely be the B-team against Vergil Jr. He may have to knock him down or knock him out several times to get the win. The good news is that the fight may take place in Riyadh rather than Las Vegas, but Ennis will still be the B-side.
Ennis defends his IBF welterweight title next month in a rematch against Karen Chukhadzhian on November 9 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. ‘Bam’ Rodriguez (20-0, 13 KOs) defends his WBC super flyweight title against Pedro Guevara (42-4-1, 22 KOs) in the co-feature on the card.
