After last night’s pretty pointless but IBF mandated return fight with Karen Chukhadzhian, IBF welterweight champ Jaron “Boots” Ennis is pondering his next move. Ennis, who won a wider decision in his first fight with the tough and durable, never stopped Ukrainian, won by lopsided scores in the return, the scores being 119-107, 117-109, and a closer 116-110.
Now 33-0(29), Boots, who scored a knockdown in the fight that was held in his hometown of Philadelphia, this in round five, said afterwards that his performance was “okay.” And for sure, Ennis is receiving mixed reviews from the fans after again being extended by Chukhadzhian, a man both Boots and his promoter Eddie Hearn felt he would do a “demolition job” on this time. Boots is now contemplating moving up to the 154 pound division.
Ennis wants the elite names at 147 pounds, but he has thus far had trouble getting one of them to agree to fight him. It’s no secret Ennis wants a fight with Terence Crawford, but so far, no dice. Now, in speaking with Chris Mannix, Boots says that unless “one of these guys (a top welterweight) stops playing,” he could be moving up in weight.
“My performance……it was okay,” Ennis said of his 12 round win. “I don’t know, man….I think it might be time to go to 154. I feel like at 154 I’m going to be way better and my pop is going to be how it’s supposed to be. If we could get one of these guys (an elite welterweight) to stop playing, let’s make it happen. But if not, then 154, here I come.”
It would be a shame if Ennis did move up to 154 next, this without having mixed it with some of the good fighters who are currently boxing at 147 – “Bud” being the obvious fight we’d like to see (either at 147 or at 154). But if none of the top welters want to fight Boots, then what option does he have but to move up?
Eddie Hearn, speaking after last night’s fight, said a fight with Vergil Ortiz, who moved up to 154 a while ago, can happen next.
“It’s really a case of just making the fight,” Hearn said of Boots Vs. Ortiz. “We’re ready to go for February 22.”
Fans would love this fight, but can it really happen so quickly, in just over three months? Another possible fight for Ennis, this one at 147, is a fight with WBA champ Eimantas Stanionis. Hearn says PBC have contacted him about this fight.
So, Boots has some thinking to do. Would a two-belt unification fight with Stanionis be enough to make Boots stay at welterweight, or might the idea of a potential classic with Ortiz entice him to pack on an additional seven pounds?
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