Pod host Shawn Porter believes the best way for Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis to be transformed into a mega-PPV star is to fight as often as possible to get his name out in the public.
Porter says it doesn’t matter if fans have not heard of Ennis’ opponents. The key is to stay as busy as possible, knocking out whoever they stick in front of him. He points out that ‘Boots’ will not get a chance to fight Terence Crawford because that’s not happening.
Crawford, 36, has only a small number of fights left before he retires, and Ennis is not among the names he wants.
Following the Golovkin Model
Ennis (32-0, 29 KOs) would follow the Gennadiy ‘GGG’ Golovkin blueprint of fighting as often as possible to get seen by casual fans, as he did earlier in his career when he destroyed obscure opposition one after another.
While the fans didn’t know who Golovkin’s opponents were, they took notice of him and were impressed. HBO signed Golovkin and broadcast his fights, and he made a fortune.
“You’re not going to get the big fight. You’re not getting Crawford,” Shawn Porter said on his YouTube channel about Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis not getting the fight he’s been campaigning for against Terence Crawford.
Crawford is targeting a fight against Canelo Alvarez, and fighting ‘Boots’ Ennis would likely foil those plans. Ennis is a different type of talent than Crawford and would expose the aging, inactive fighter.
“Outside of Crawford, what other big-name fight is there? We want to say Vergil Ortiz is a big name at 154. OK, cool,” said Porter.
Vergil Ortiz Jr. (21-0, 21 KOs) is not a big name with casual boxing fans, but he would still be a good opponent for ‘Boots’ Ennis to use to increase his popularity. However, Golden Boy Promotions isn’t about to let Vergil Jr fight Ennis. That fight has no chance of happening.
“Keep knocking them out. Stay busy. That’s how he’s going to create a name for himself. It doesn’t matter if they [fans] don’t know who [they are],” said Porter about it not mattering if Boots Ennis beats fighters that casual boxing fans have never heard of. Just say busy.”
What Porter doesn’t say is that ‘Boots’ should move up to 154 if he wants to rapidly become popular because it will take longer for him to become a star if he remains at 147, trying to collect all the titles to accomplish his goal of becoming undisputed welterweight champion. While that’s a worthy goal to have, it’s self-defeating for two reasons:
- Time required to collect the remaining titles
- Resistance from other 147-lb champions to fight Boots
- Lack of popularity of the three champions, Mario Barrios, Brian Norman Jr., and Eimantas Stanionis, are not well-known
“Just like GGG back in the day,” said pod host Sean Zittel,” talking about how Gennadiy Golovkin became a star by fighting frequently earlier in his career, staying really busy with four+ fights per year. “It doesn’t matter who he’s fighting. Just get knockouts and fight often.”
The idea of ‘Boots’ Ennis staying busy, fighting four to five times a year, is excellent, but the problem is that there might be enough dates for him on DAZN for that to work. Ennis would have to agree to compete on undercards to be that busy, and he won’t be receptive to that.
“Why the layoff? He was signed with Showtime, and they’re no longer around, so that kind of messed things up,” said Zittel about why ‘Boots’ Ennis was inactive for a year from July 2023 until his match last Saturday night, July 13th, against David Avanesyan.
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