Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis says he’s excited and can’t wait to “show out” for his unfication fight against WBA welterweight champion Eimantas Stanionis on April 12th, live on DAZN at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
IBF welterweight champion Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) claims that his fight against Stanionis (15-0, 9 KOs) is “#1 and against #2” in the 147-lb division. He sees this as “the best against the best” with him and Stanionis as the top dogs. However, WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr. would have something to say about that because he views himself as #1, and so do a lot of boxing fans.
The way Norman Jr. is looking right now, he’d beat Ennis and Stanionis by knockout. Obviously, Ennis isn’t about to downgrade himself by saying that the #1 guy at 147 still hasn’t been determined.
Excuses?
“In my last fight, I fought a guy I beat already. I beat him 12 nothing. People don’t understand that it’s hard to fight guys like that,” said Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis to Way Up with Angela Yee, talking about why he struggled in his last contest against Karen Chukhadzhian on November 8th.
Ennis should have gotten up for his rematch with Karen because he’s struggled against him in their first fight and was made to look bad. It sounds like Jaron is being disingenuous when he says he wasn’t motivated for the fight. It’s believable that Ennis didn’t want to fight him again, but he sounds less than forthright when discussing not being up for the match.
“I didn’t really want to fight the guy, but I was forced to fight him because the IBF made me fight him. It’s boxing. I got to do what I got to do. I fight my mandatorys. I’m glad I had that fight with him. It made me do things a lot smarter in this camp, a lot better. I can’t wait [to fight Stanionis].”
Boots isn’t fooling anyone with his excuses for why he looked so bad against Karen Chukhadzhian in their rematch. If it was just an issue about him not getting up for the fight, he should have been able to shake that off after he started getting schooled by him early on. He didn’t do that. Karen dominated Ennis the entire fight, hitting him with potshots and looking like a Ukrainian version of Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Ennis’s #1 Claim
“I’m really excited. I’m going to show out. I’m ready to give everybody what they’ve been asking for. I’m #1 in the division, and he’s #2. We’re going to give the fans what they want. That’s what they want to see,” said Ennis about him fighting Stanionis in a unification. “They want to see unifications. They want to see the best fight the best, and that’s what we’re doing.
“I’m locked in. I don’t really watch stuff like that unless it’s Floyd or my brothers. I’m not worried about none of these guys. I’m locked in on what I’ve got going on,” said Ennis when asked if he watched WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr’s fight against Derrieck Cuevas last Saturday night on ESPN+.
It’s hard to believe that Boots Ennis didn’t take the time to watch WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr’s fight last Saturday night against Derrieck Cuevas, given that this is someone that he’d been in negotiations with recently. Moreover, Norman Jr. is seen by many as Ennis’ main competition in the division and the biggest obstacle that stands in his way to becoming an undisputed champion at 147.
