LAS VEGAS – Trainer Bozy Ennis listened to others criticize the career moves his son, welterweight titleholder Jaron “Boots” Ennis, was making.
Now, he’s here to speak his truth.
Confusion set in when Ennis said in the ring following a defensively vulnerable winning performance over IBF mandatory contender Karen Chukhadzhian that he was considering a move to 154 pounds, the division considered the most stacked in boxing.
Soon enough, talk circulated that Ennis was headed for a bout against unbeaten WBC interim junior middleweight champion Vergil Ortiz Jnr.
When it didn’t materialize, the perception quickly escalated that “Boots” got cold feet.
“Not true. No one ever came to us with it,” Bozy Ennis said of an Ortiz offer. “What we wanted most was to unify at welterweight.”
Bozy Ennis said he didn’t think a unification bout was possible given that Ennis, 33-0 (29 KOs), fights for Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing and two other welterweight champions, WBA champion Eimantas Stanionis and WBC champion Mario Barrios Jnr, fight for Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions.
What Bozy didn’t know is that Stanionis, 15-0 (9 KOs), wanted to unify more than any man in the division, telling his representatives to bypass 11th-hour negotiations with No. 1 WBA contender Shakhram Giyasov and pursue “Boots.”
“This fight doesn’t happen without Stanionis,” an individual familiar with the talks told BoxingScene Thursday.
When Hearn reached out to PBC’s Luis DeCubas Jnr, he found a willing negotiator and they struck a deal for a unification April 12 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The fight will be on DAZN.
“Stanionis is the best welterweight champion available to us,” Bozy Ennis said. “He has a very big heart, strong fighter.”
After other overtures by WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jnr and WBO 140-pound champion Teofimo Lopez were made toward “Boots,” the criticism mounted that Team Ennis wanted a softer touch.
“Not at all. We just want to be the undisputed welterweight champion,” Bozy Ennis said.
With “Boots” just 27, Bozy says there’s time enough to go after Vergil Ortiz in the near future.
“Ortiz needs to worry about winning his fight that’s coming up,” Bozy Ennis said, speaking of his February 22 in Saudi Arabia against former WBA junior-middleweight champion Israil Madrimov. “Don’t worry, Ortiz. We’ll get to you.”
Bozy Ennis, from Philadelphia, is in the corner of former unified super-bantamweight Stephen Fulton for Saturday’s WBC featherweight title fight against champion Brandon Figueroa, a rematch of the 2021 super-bantamweight unification won by Figueroa.
With Figueroa coming off a body shot knockout victory in May, he’s said he plans to finish Fulton early.
Bozy Ennis said they’ve devoted great attention to defense this camp, with the plan to produce a far more lively showing than Fulton’s near loss to Carlos Castro in September.
On the heels of his lightweight Andy Cruz’s impressive Saturday victory over Omar Salcido to set Cruz toward a possible title fight later this year, Ennis envisions taking Fulton and his son to unified title fights as well, positioning himself for Trainer of the Year.
“I’d like that,” Bozy Ennis said. “That’s what I’d like to do.”
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