Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis feels victimized because of the criticism that he’s been receiving ahead of his unification fight against WBA welterweight champion Eimantas Stanionis on April 12th at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The event will be shown live on DAZN.

Performance Dip

IBF champion Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) has lost the spark that he had earlier in his career and hasn’t looked good in the last three years since 2022. His dad, Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis, feels that he’s trying too hard to score knockouts.

In Boots’ last fight against Karen Chukhadzhian on November 9th, he tried to box, but still struggled and was outboxed. That fight showed that Ennis is going to need to make changes to his game for him to accomplish his goal of becoming the undisputed champion at 147 before moving up to 154.

Many fans aren’t familiar with Stanionis (15-0, 9 KOs) because he’s not been in many publicized fights. His pressure style could give Ennis fits.

“He got so hung up on knocking guys out, and then he found out you can’t punch. He doesn’t care about you touching him, but I want to get away from that,” said trainer Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis to Matchroom Boxing, talking about his son, IBF welterweight champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, analyzing why he hasn’t looked good in his last four fights.

Bozy sounds like he’s overlooking the real problem with Ennis’s game. Defensively, he’s a flawed fighter and gets hit way too much for him to fight at the elite level. He’s gotten away with it due to his weak resume, but Stanionis may find him out on April 12th.

“I’m the Best”

“They criticize everything I do. It doesn’t matter. I can go the distance and beat a guy 12 nothing. ‘Oh, he should have knocked him out,” said Jaron Ennis. “When I knock somebody out, they say, ‘I don’t know if he got a chin.’

“They say I get hit too much. I get hit a couple of times. For me, it don’t matter. They’re always going to find something to pick at. I do this for me. I know I’m the best in the world and I’m going to continue to keep proving it.”