IBF welterweight champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis says he’s going into his “Mr. Catchabody mode” as he begins preparing for his unification fight against WBA 147-lb champion on April 12th at the Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey. Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey. The event will be shown live on DAZN.
Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) states that it’s time to “Show out,” which he needs to do this time because he recently turned down the opportunity to face WBC interim junior middleweight champion Vergil Ortiz Jr. on this Saturday’s event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Complacency Creeping In?
Boots is rumored to have rejected a career-high payday of $8 million to fight Vergil because he wanted to stay at 147 to continue working on his goal of becoming undisputed champion. It looks to some like Ennis has lost his hunger to take risks and is trying to stay safe at welterweight, beating the weak opposition in this weight class for as long as possible.
If he moved up to 154, he could get found out by the sharks in that division. There’s a whole bunch of talented fighters in that weight class who could ruin Boots’ career. He almost lost his last fight against Karen Chukhadzhian in their rematch on November 9th.
Ennis got schooled in that fight, getting his head boxed off by the highly technical Ukrainian fighter. What really looked bad was how Karen was out-slugging him. Boots still won, but it was such a bad performance that you could tell he won’t stay unbeaten for much longer unless he stays at welterweight.
“I wasn’t paying it too much mind. I’m doing what I want to do, and I’m getting what I want,” said Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis to YSM Sports Media when asked about his thoughts on how he used to be avoided by everybody and now he’s got the ‘pick of the litter’ in being able to get any fight he wants at 147.
“I don’t care. They keep my name in the headlines. So, it is what it is. I really don’t care, and that’s probably what makes everybody mad that I don’t care,” said Ennis.
