Shakur Stevenson Wants to see Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis move up to 154 to fight Vergil Ortiz Jr., his interim WBC junior middleweight title.
Stevenson thinks that Ennis (32-0, 29 KOs) would have more than enough talent to defeat the 26-year-old Vergil (22-0, 21 KOs), who is coming off a controversial 12-round majority decision win over Serhii . Bohachuk on August 10 in Las Vegas. Vergil had slipped and was countered all night by Bohachuk.
Boots Ennis, 27, hasn’t said anything about moving up to junior middleweight, but he might need to because he doesn’t seem to have a chance to unify the 147lb division. Ennis’ promoter, Eddie Hearn, has run into obstacles when trying to negotiate fights with other welterweight champions. They want too much money.
Ennis is training for her title defense against Karen Chukhadzhian (24-2, 13 KOs) in their rematch on November 9 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. The IBF ordered the fight, so Ennis had no choice but to face Chukhadzhian again. Ennis wants to make a statement this time by removing him.
“I’d like to see Boots go up now and fight Vergil Ortiz. I think Boots is the truth. Yeah, but Boots is the truth,” said Shakur Stevenson GBHTV about wanting Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis to move up to 154 to challenge interim WBC junior middleweight champion Vergil Ortiz Jr.
Ennis should move up to 154 to broaden his horizons because it doesn’t look like he will ever have a unification fight at 147. If he stays in the weight class, he will continue to run into trouble trying to get big fights
“Vergil is tough, though,” coach Greg Hackett said. “I guess Boots would have his way, but Vergil is a big boy.”
“Can Vergil take that (stuff) Boots is handing out? Can he take that?” Shakur said.
“That’s the question. That MF hit me with a body shot today, and he had 18 ounces, and we weren’t even sparring,” Hackett said on Boots.
“He sparred me, and threw me out of the ring. I said, ‘What kind of jab is that?’ It reached 100 kilometers per hour. All right, I’ll stand up for myself,” Shakur said of Boots Ennis,
