Trainer Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis denies there was ever talk about him fighting Vergil Ortiz Jr. or Teofimo Lopez. He says that was fake news that may have sprung up Ennis’s last fight against Karen Chukhadzhian on November 9th. After the contest, Boots said he could move up to 154.
The perception fans have about Boots Ennis is that he’s afraid to take risks, lacks ambition, and wants no part of fighting Vergil Ortiz Jr or any of the killers at 154. He’d rather play it safe being a big fish in a small pond.
Promoter Eddie Hearn revealed months ago that there was an offer for Boots to fight Vergil at 147. The offer was changed for Ennis to move up to 154 to fight Vergil, and he chose not to take the fight. If Ennis had agreed, he’d be fighting Vergil this Saturday night in Riyadh instead of Israil Madrimov.
It’s unclear if Bozy Ennis forgot about the offer for Boots to fight Vergil Jr., or he doesn’t mention that because it would make his son look like he ducked him, which is what it looks like. The money he’d have gotten for fighting Ortiz would have been huge and likely his biggest career purse.
No Ortiz, No Lopez
“If you listened closely, he said, ‘I might have to move up,’ but he still wanted to clean the 147 out. That’s what he’s saying. He wouldn’t move up right at that time. He still wanted to clean 147 out,” said Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis to Fight Hub TV, clarifying what his son, Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, meant when he said after his last fight against Karen Chukhadzhian that he might have to move up to 154.
“That’s something I didn’t know nothing about,” said Bozy when told that there were rumors of Ennis fighting Vergil Ortiz and Teofimo Lopez in the past. “I guess they took it away when he said he would probably have to move up when it came to Vergil Ortiz. But we never negotiated anything about that fight or nothing. We never talked about it. I don’t know where that came from. It could be [fake news].
“That’s the plan. Once we unify all the titles [at 147], eventually, we’re going to move up, and try and do the same thing in that division [154]. We’d have loved to fight Crawford at that time. I’d rather him fighting us than moving up to 168
