IBF welterweight champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) and WBA belt-holder Eimantas Stanionis (15-0, 9 KOs) battle tonight in a potential Fight of the Year unification match live on DAZN, with the start time of the main card at 8:00 pm ET / 5:00 pm PT. Tonight’s event is at the historic Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Stanionis will look to pull off an upset against the favorite Ennis. The oddsmakers see Boots Ennis as having few problems with the 2016 Olympian Stanionis, but fans have doubts. The Matchroom fighter Ennis has struggled recently, causing doubts about his ability to win this fight.
Main Card on DAZN
Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis vs. Eimantas Stanionis
Raymond Ford vs. Thomas Mattice
Omari Jones vs. William Jackson
Shakhram Giyasov vs. Franco Ocampo
Ennis, 27, received a lot of criticism from fans and the media for choosing not to move up to 154 to get bigger paydays against the more popular fighters in that weight class. Some people view Boots as being afraid of his career going belly up if he were to begin campaigning at junior middleweight. As such, Ennis has chosen to stay where it’s safe at 147, focusing on his ‘goal’ of becoming the undisputed champion.
Understandably, the Ennis-Stanionis unification fight has received most of the attention from fans for tonight’s card because it involves two world champions in a unification contest. However, former WBA featherweight champ Raymond Ford’s co-feature bout against Thomas Mattice is an interesting one.
Ford (16-1-1 8 KOs) wants to make a statement against the veteran Mattice (22-4-1, 17 KOs) in their 10-round fight to let the champions at super featherweight know he’s coming for them. It’s vital that Raymond, 26, looks impressive against Mattice for him to be taken seriously by the champs at 130.
Ford lost much of his popularity after losing a 12-round split decision to Nick Ball on June 1st last year. The British fighter outpunched Ford and made him look bad in that fight.
