Jaron ‘Boots’ is looking good as the IBF welterweight champion, facing undisputed opposition for Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom, but I don’t think he has a chance if he chooses to step up to face him to Bakhram Murtazaliev for his IBF junior middleweight title.
Ennis (32-0, 29 KO) is spinning his wheels at 147, hoping to one day become the undisputed champion in the division. Until he realizes that he will never have a chance to fight any of the welterweight titles due to a combination of financial demands from other champions and network and promotional issues.
For the sake of Ennis, he needs to wake up and understand that his promoter, Hearn, will not be able to make the fights he needs for him at welterweight to achieve his goal. He needs to move forward while he is still young.
Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs) would probably indulge Boots by giving him a shot at his IBF belt if the money was right. It wouldn’t be the fight Murtazaliev wants, but it will be avoided by the other 154lb champions after what he did to former WBO champion Tim Tszyu on Saturday night in Orlando, Florida.
Murtazaliev will be shunned by the plague by other champions now. It will be much worse than before when the champions gave Murtazaliev side deals so they could avoid him.
Why Murtazaliev beat Ennis:
– Skills
– Labor tax
– The power
– Experience
Ennis is a capable fighter at 147, but he hasn’t shown any out-of-this-world power, and he gets hit a lot. We saw how Boots went life and death with the heavy Roiman Villa last year on July 8.
Ennis took a career penalty against Villa. Also, Boots was made to look like he had two left feet by Karen Chukhadzhian in their 12 round fight in January 2023. Boots looked so bad in that fight that people still talk about it to this day.
Murtazaliev’s power played a big factor in why he would have destroyed Boots Ennis. He is naturally a great puncher. Ennis also has good power, but it’s not as extreme as Murtazaliev.
Normally, it takes Boots several rounds for him to score knockouts, and that is against the lower-level opposition his management has matched against. Boots recently took ten rounds to knockout Roiman Villa. In Roiman’s last fight on September 14, he was defeated in the 3rd round by Ricardo Salas Rodriguez. That guy is not a major player at 147.
Boots is going to take some risks with his career sooner or later moving up to 154 because he’s not going anywhere at 147. His promoter, Hearn, has already hit a dead end trying to get the other champions to fight, and it is not shown that he wants to meet his asking price. If Boots move up, he can face Murtazaliev and show the boxing world what he can do against a fighter who so easily swept out Tszyu.
If Ennis were to conquer Murtzaliev, his career would shoot through the roof because the Russian’s popularity is skyrocketing after the way he demolished Tszyu. Beating Murtazaliev now would be worth 100 wins over Karen Chukhadzhian, and that’s the kind of opposition he’ll have to fight if he chooses to stay at 147 with his hopeless dream of one day in the distant future, capture the undisputed championship.
A battle between Ennis and Murtazalev would be seen as a 50-50 match. Fans will be excited to watch the contest because it would be like a monster movie. Instead of Boots fighting random guys that his promoter Hearn digs for him, he’s going to be facing someone he could beat.
