Golden Boy promoter Bernard Hopkins guarantees that Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis will fight in 2025. He feels that “greed” and “politics” will not prevent that matchup from happening next year. Fans are convinced that Ennis ducked Vergil Jr. because she lost her conference after her poor performance in her rematch against Karen Chukhadzhian on November 9.
(Credit: Mark Robinson / Matchroom Boxing)
Is Ennis Avoiding Ortiz Jr.?
If it’s not cowardice on the part of Boots for not agreeing to fight Ortiz, he needs to move to 154 because nothing will happen for him to stay at 147. He says he stays at welterweight because he wants Eddie Hearn to get there. the fight against the champions.
It doesn’t happen, and you don’t seem to see things for what they are. Hearn has failed and will continue to fail to put in the fight that Ennis needs against other champions. Unless Turki Alalshikh helps, Hearn won’t produce the money needed to set up the unification fights Boots is asking for.
Winning those belts won’t make Ennis more popular because the fans don’t know who the champions are at 147. The three champions that Boots needs to fight to become undisputed are complete unknowns, and he can’t earn anything by beating them.
That’s why it would be better to move to 154 and take Vergil Jr. for his interim WBC title. Of course, this is if the reason you don’t fight is fear, which could be the real reason.
Loses to Ortiz Jr. will ruin Ennis’ careerr, sabotaging the revenue stream that was poured in without ever being tested against A-level or elite fighters. It may just be a hype job, which is why he looked so poor in his two fights against Karen Chukhadzhian and in his matches against David Avanesyan and Roiman Villa.
Money and politics had nothing to do with the fight that didn’t happen on February 22nd. Boots (33-0, 29 KOs) and WBC interim junior middleweight champion Vergil Jr. (22-0, 21 KOs) are not fighting. Ennis, 27, decided he didn’t want to move up to 154 because he wanted to stay at 147 to continue his tireless quest to unify the welterweight division.
Ennis just doesn’t seem to understand. He won’t be able to get the fights he wants at 147 because the champions don’t want to lose the belt without being paid a huge amount of money. Hopkins’ optimistic outlook for a fight between Ennis and Ortiz Jr. the next year is naive, and does not see the real problem – money or lack of it.
“Whether it’s the Boots team or Golden Boy, that fight will be demanded by the fans, and the money and the opportunity will present themselves. They won’t be able to say no,” Bernanrd Hopkins told Fighthpe about a fight between Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis and Vergil Ortiz Jr. “The fight will happen (in 2025).
“The timing wasn’t right for either side. They still have to cross each other before they get to the next level,” Hopkins said of Ortiz and Ennis. “I guarantee you that the battles that are meant to happen, will happen.”
Hearn’s role and challenges
Some fans believe that Boots is obsessed with unifying the 147-lb division. He doesn’t understand that his promoter, Eddie Hearn, can’t put him in fights against other champions. If Ennis’ name was Anthony Joshua, Hearn would have better luck getting the fight, because he would produce the money to get the fights that AJ demands.
Boots is no Joshua in terms of popularity, and the unification fight he’s asking for is unlikely to happen in 2025, 2026, or 2027. He’ll get old and have nothing to show for the precious belts he’s chasing.
