Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis’ growth as a fighter will be tested by Karen Chukhadzhian in their rematch on November 9 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
In Ennis’ fight against Chukhadzhian (24-2, 13 KOs) last year on January 7, he couldn’t cut the ring and was missing badly with homerun swings, trying to take him down. Boots Ennis won every round of the fight, but it didn’t look impressive.
In the rematch, Boots (32-0, 29 KOs) will defend his IBF welterweight title against Chukhadzhian in the main event, and fans will be looking to see if he has improved his game.
“What is the super fight for him? Let’s look realistically. He’s not Terence Crawford. He’s not going to fight Boots unless it’s ridiculous money, and he’s going to take it,” said commentator Ade Oladipo to DAZN Boxingtalking about what the super fight is for Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis. “Is it one of the big 140 guys coming in? Is it Teofimo Lopez? Is it the fight he’s looking for?”
“I don’t think there’s a super fight for him right now because I don’t think there’s a potential super fight at 140 or 154,” Chris Mannix said of Ennis. “I think his biggest fights will be at 154. He wants to be a unified champion before he moves on. So, I think he wants to get one more title shot.
There are no super fights for Ennis at 147, and he makes things more difficult for himself by choosing not to move to 154. The best fights are in junior middleweight for Ennis, and he will understand that he will be avoided at 147 .from the best fighters in the division.
“I think Brian Norman is his most likely opponent out there. I think they can cross the line (in negotiations). I think you’re Boots, you can’t think about mega-fights,” Mannix said. “You have to think about good fights. Right now, he hasn’t been in a good to really good fight.”
Hearn failed to negotiate a unification fight with the WBO welterweight champion after choosing not to increase his offer from $1.7 million to $2.2 million for a match with Ennis. He seems to believe that Norman Jr. eventually he will drop his asking price, but that may not happen, and Ennis isn’t getting any younger.
If Hearn can’t make this fight next or against one of the other champions for Ennis, he needs to move up to 154 and try to fight against the best in that division.
“He’s been in some decent fights, but he hasn’t been in a title unification fight yet. He hasn’t been in a world title fight at 154. He hasn’t been with someone like Vergil Ortiz, who I think it’s a super fight for him at some point,” Mannix said.
If and when that happens, Vergil Ortiz Jr would be an excellent fight for Ennis. Promoter Eddie Hearn has responded to rumors of Ennis fighting Ortiz in February, saying they are not true, but he would like to make that fight. That might require His Excellency Turki Alalshikh to step forward to finance because Vergil Jr. won’t take a risky fight against Boots without it being a money deal.
“In this fight against Chukhadzhian, I think we will learn if Boots Ennis grows. When I saw the first fight with Chukhadzhian, I did not know how to cut the ring. He was following the guy around and that allowed Chukhadzhian to go to 12 round. This fight, he knows what he’s going to do. He knows how to fight,” Mannix said.
Ennis, 27, has fought two sluggers, Roiman Villa and David Avanesyan, since his fight against Chukhadzhian last year, but he didn’t need to cut the ring against them because they were right in front of him. He was hit hard in both fights, and looked vulnerable on defense.
“We’ll see if Boots has developed his game to the point where he can cut that ring and land that type of punches on that guy,” Mannix said of Boots and Chukhadzhian.
Boots didn’t look his best in his recent fight against David Avanesyan on July 13th. He was the same fighter who had worked for an Unimpressive 12-round unanimous decision against Chukhadzhian last year on January 7, 2023.
Avanesysan, 35, was too old to take advantage of the holes in Ennis’ game that Karen had exposed earlier, but he landed plenty of shots on him before he was stopped in the fifth round in Philadelphia.
