IBF welterweight champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis (32-0, 29 KOs) is best off staying at 147 slightly than venturing as much as 154 to gamble within the shark-infested waters in that deep division. Staying at 147 is Boots Ennis’ best shot at becoming a star, and he has a significantly better probability of staying unbeaten longer than if he moves up.
It doesn’t matter if Ennis never unifies the welterweight division. Just holding onto his one piece of real estate along with his IBF belt is concerning the same as capturing the opposite belts against obscure, no-talent champions at holding those belts.
The casual fans haven’t any clue who Mario Barrios, Eimantas Stanionis, and Brian Norman Jr. are. So, there’s no gain for Boots to unify the division against these little known belt-holders. Those fighters might as well be holding trinket titles since the casual fans don’t know who they’re, and it’s doubtful they ever will.
“Karen was asking for this fight. He went through the method to make this occur. He was fighting in those silly IBF eliminators that put you ready to get this sort of opportunity,” said Chris Mannix to DAZN Boxing about Karen Chukhadzhian wanting the rematch with IBF welterweight champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis.
“I don’t blame him for it because he’s probably getting paid six what he got paid for his last couple of fights. The true problem is a sanctioning body that permits something like this to occur. That enables a man that got his [backside] kicked over 12 rounds to fight just a few low-level fights to be right back in position to be the mandatory challenger,” Mannix continued about Chukhadzhian.
After all, Chukhadzhian wanted the rematch with Boots Ennis because that’s a title shot and a guaranteed nice payday for way extra money than what he was getting fighting the 24 scrubs he beat to construct his 24-2 record. If the International Boxing Federation goes to make it easy for fighters to turn out to be mandatory challengers without fighting anyone dangerous, why wouldn’t Chukhadzhian make the most of it?
“They did kick the tires at 154. They [Team Ennis] talked a few Charles Conwell fight,” said Mannix about Ennis and his team considering a move as much as 154 but then changing their minds. “They talked about fighting other guys at 154. There just wasn’t an enormous fight on the market for him at 154, and immediately, that belt is currency. For those who are a champion, you may do some things with it.”
What Mannix isn’t saying is that the fights that Ennis could get can be very hard and dangerous ones that he could lose. Indeed, there aren’t any popular fighters at 154 that may guarantee Boots Ennis an enormous mega-million payday. Nevertheless, what’s also true is that there are fighters at 154 that might potentially beat Ennis, they usually do it brutally by knocking him out. Ennis could get knocked out if he moved up and fought these big punchers:
– Serhii Bohachuk
– Bakhram Murtazaliev
– Israil Madrimov
– Vergil Ortiz Jr.
– Sebastian Fundora
– Charles Conwell
We saw what ‘Little GGG’ Madrimov did to Terence Crawford. He beat the stuffing out of the Omaha, Nebraska native, messing up his face so bad that he looked he’d been run over. Whatever ambition Crawford once had about becoming the undisputed champion at 154 was driven out of him by the punishment he took against Madrimov.
Boots Ennis would get the identical treatment, but he may not delay. He wouldn’t run across the ring like Crawford did to survive Madrimov’s big punches. Ennis would actually attempt to fight, and that might end badly for him.
“You possibly can have a look at it and say, ‘Alright, Brian Norman. Alright, Stanionis. Alright, Barrios. It’s 2025. Let’s start fresh, get these negotiations, and make these unifications occur. The pathway for the most important fights for Boots still involves him having that belt,” said Mannix.
Holding onto 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 interest those champs to fight him. Hearn hasn’t shown the will to pay the type of money that the opposite champions are asking for to face Boots.
If Ennis vacates his IBF title and moves as much as 154, there’s no guarantee that he’s going to be the identical fighter in that division. They hit harder at junior middleweight, and the division is stacked with fighters who’ve the identical type of talent as Ennis. That is perhaps the rationale why Ennis and his father have chosen not to present up the IBF belt.
They know that life may very well be difficult at 154, and Ennis may crumble once he starts tasting the facility of the killers Bakhram Murtazaliev, Israil Madrimov, Vergil Ortiz Jr, and Serhii Bohachuk. You possibly can count the old timer, Terence Crawford because he’s clearly given up fighting the young talent after getting a taste of how powerful and hungry they’re at 154 in his fight against Madrimov on August third. Crawford is now just waiting for a handout from Canelo Alvarez. If he doesn’t get that fight, he’ll likely retire.
