Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, the IBF welterweight champion, says he’s being called out by anyone other than “irrelevant” fighters. Although Boots’ talent is undeniable, he’s not being given an opportunity to display it because notable fighters are avoiding him.
The unbeaten ‘Boots’ Ennis (31-0, 28 KOs) is in a situation Terence Crawford was in throughout his career: He’s being avoided by the top fighters due to the danger he presents to them.
The Unfortunate Reality of Popularity in Boxing
Even Crawford doesn’t want to fight Boots now that he’s found fame with his win over Errol Spence last year. Crawford doesn’t want to mess things up for himself by going against the 26-year-old Boots Ennis and having his 15 minutes of fame ruined.
This week, Teofimo Lopez also said he wanted no part of fighting Boots because he wasn’t popular enough to fight, even though facing him would allow the New Yorker to capture his third-division world title. Once again, Boots Ennis’ lack of fame prevents him from being given that fight.
Ennis isn’t popular enough to encourage any more talented opposition to fight him, and he won’t be able to lure anyone to face him without his new promoter, Eddie Hearn, at Matchroom or the Saudis overpaying top talent.
If Hearn can’t get any of the top fighters to face Boots, he may regret signing him because he’ll languish without gaining popularity and will be stuck defending his IBF title against little-known fighters like Cody Crowley and Davis Avanesyan.
Boots Ennis is defending his IBF next month against 35-year-old David Avanesyan (30-4-1, 18 KOs) on July 13th at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. The fight will be shown live on DAZN.
Ennis’s Frustration: The “Irrelevant” Call-Outs
“I don’t think no man is scared of another man, but when you hear other people call everyone out, they don’t call me out. The only people that really call me out is somebody that’s irrelevant..like nobody cares about,” said Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis to TheOnlyKayla YouTube channel.