IBF welterweight champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis (32-0, 29 KOs) is better off staying at 147 than venturing down to 154 to play in the shark-infested waters in that deep division. Staying at 147 is Boots Ennis’ best shot at becoming a star, and he has a much better chance of staying undefeated longer than if he moves.
It doesn’t matter if Ennis never unifies the welterweight division. Just holding on to his only piece of real estate with his IBF belt is almost the same as capturing other belts against obscure champions with no talent to hold those belts.
Casual fans have no idea who Mario Barrios, Eimantas Stanionis and Brian Norman Jr. are. So there is no gain for Boots to unify the division against these little-known belts. Those fighters might still hold trinket titles because casual fans don’t know who they are, and it’s doubtful they ever will.
“Karen asked for this fight. She went through the process to make this happen. She fought in those stupid IBF eliminators that put you in a position to get this kind of opportunity,” said Chris Mannix to DAZN Boxing about Karen Chukhadzhian wanting a rematch with IBF welterweight champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis.
“I don’t blame him because he’s probably going to get paid six times what he got paid for his last couple of fights. The real problem is a sanctioning body that allows something like this to happen. That allows a guy that he had his (backside) kicked over 12 rounds to fight a few low-level fights to get back in position to be the mandatory challenger,” Mannix continued about Chukhadzhian.
Of course, Chukhadzhian wanted the rematch with Boots Ennis because it’s a title shot and a good guaranteed payday for a lot more money than he was getting fighting the 24 scrubs he beat to build his 24-2 record . If the International Boxing Federation is going to make it easier for fighters to become mandatory challengers without fighting anyone dangerous, why wouldn’t Chukhadzhian take advantage of it?
“They kicked the tires at 154. They (Team Ennis) talked about a Charles Conwell fight,” Mannix said of Ennis and his team considering a move up to 154, but then changing their minds. “They talked about fighting other guys at 154. There wasn’t a big fight for him at 154, and now, that belt is money. If you’re a champion, you can do some things with him.”
What Mannix doesn’t say is that the fights that Ennis could get would be very tough and risky that he could lose. In truth, there are no popular fighters at 154 that would warrant Boots Ennis a huge mega-million payday. However, what is also true is that there are fighters at 154 who could beat Ennis, and they do it by brutally knocking him down. Ennis could be KO’d if he went up and fought those big punches:
– Serhii Bohachuk
– Bakhram Murtazaliev
– Israel Madrimov
– Vergil Ortiz Jr.
– Sebastian Fundora
– Charles Conwell
We saw what “Little GGG” Madrimov did to Terence Crawford. He beat the stuffing out of the Omaha, Nebraska native, tearing up his face so badly it looked like he had been robbed. Whatever ambition Crawford once had to become the undisputed champion at 154 was stripped from him by the punishment he took against Madrimov.
Boots Ennis would get the same treatment, but he might not keep it. He wouldn’t run around the ring like Crawford did to survive Madrimov’s big punches. Ennis will really try to fight, and this could end badly for him.
“You can look at it and say, ‘Okay, Brian Norman.’ Agreed, Stanionis. It’s okay, Barrios. It’s 2025. Let’s start fresh, take these negotiations, and make these unifications happen. The path to the biggest fights for Boots always involves him having that belt,” Mannix said.
Holding the IBF title does not guarantee that Ennis will get unification fights against any of those champions without his promoter, Eddie Hearn, coming up with the bread and butter to interest those champions in fighting him. Hearn has shown no desire to pay the kind of money other champions are asking to face Boots.
If Ennis vacates his IBF title and moves to 154, there is no guarantee that he will be the same fighter in that division. They hit harder at junior middleweight, and the division is stacked with fighters who have the same talent as Ennis. That could be the reason why Ennis and his father chose not to give up the IBF belt.
They know that life could be difficult at 154and Ennis may fall once he begins to taste the power of the assassins Bakhram Murtazaliev, Israil Madrimov, Vergil Ortiz Jr, and Serhii Bohachuk. You can count on the old timer, Terence Crawford, because he clearly gave up the fight with the young talent after getting a taste of how powerful and hungry they are at 154 in his fight against Madrimov on August 3rd. Crawford is now just waiting for a handout from Canelo Alvarez. If he doesn’t get that fight, he will probably retire.
