The Vergil Ortiz Jr. vs. Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis and Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez vs. Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez doubleheader is reported possible for the beginning of 2025, on February 22, in an event of Riyadh Season in Saudi Arabia.
Vergil Jr’s trainer, interim WBC junior middleweight champion Robert Garcia, told Boxingscene about a possible rematch. That would be an interesting fight card.
Some fans might be critical of Bam Rodriguez fighting the 37-year-old Chocolatito Gonzalez (54-4, 42 KOs) because this very popular legend is well past his prime, close to 38 years old, and has lost two of his last four fights.
The 24-year-old Rodriguez is much younger than Chocolatito, and there is a discrepancy where the two fighters are at this point in their careers. Bam has already beaten a lot of older fighters, and it would be sad to see him use Chocolatito as a stepping stone.
Will Ennis stay at 154?
If that happens, it would be interesting to see if Ennis (32-0, 29 KOs) chooses to stay at 154 or if it’s just a one-off. He says that he wants to unify the welterweight division by capturing all four belts, but it does not seem that this will happen without the help of the Saudis to attract other champions to fight against him.
If Ennis chooses to stay at 154 if he successfully defeats Vergil Ortiz (22-0, 21 KOs), he will put himself in position for big fights against Terence Crawford, Sebastian Fundora, Israil Madrimov, Bakhram Murtazaliev, and Tim Tszyu .
There are endless possibilities for big money fights available to 27-year-old Boots Ennis if he chooses to stay at junior middleweight after a potential fight against Vergil Jr. on February 22.
Vergil is coming off a controversial 12-round majority decision win over interim WBC 154-lb champion Serhii Bohachuk on Aug. 10 in Las Vegas.
The boxing world saw it as a robbery, believing that the judges gave the most popular Ortiz Jr. the victory because he was younger, better known, and had a higher advantage than the foreign fighter Bohachuk. What made the win worse is that Vergil chose not to give Bohachuk a rematch to quell the controversy.
Despite being a world champion and seen as having a better future, Boots Ennis will likely be the B-side against Vergil Jr. You may need to take him down multiple times or hit him to get the win. The good news is that the fight could happen in Riyadh instead of Las Vegas, but Ennis would still be the B-side.
Ennis defends her IBF welterweight title next month in a rematch against Karen Chukhadzhian on November 9 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. “Bam” Rodriguez (20-0, 13 KOs) defends his WBC super flyweight title against Pedro Guevara (42-4-1, 22 KOs) in the co-feature on the card.
