‘Showtime’ Shawn Porter says he’s “tired” of people talking about how great highly hyped welterweight Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis is and he feels “overrated” as a fighter.
Porter notes that the 24-year-old Boots (28-0, 26 KOs) hasn’t fought anyone yet and he wants to see it happen so he can live up to the hype about him.
In response to Porter calling Ennis “overrated,” Boots is challenging the former IBF/WBC welterweight champion to come out of retirement to face him inside the ring.
The 34-year-old Porter only recently retired last November after being stopped by WBO 147-lb champion Terence Crawford in the 10th round in their PPV fight on ESPN.
It would be brave of Porter to agree to face Boots Ennis so that he can show the boxing world how he compares to Crawford.
Porter hasn’t been out of the sport long enough for him to lose any part of his game through inactivity the way most fighters do when they hang up their gloves for an extended amount of time.
Porter thinks that Boots would be a good option for former WBA/WBC welterweight champion Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman to face in his next fight, but he feels the 33-year-old would defeat the younger fighter.
Surprisingly, Porter thinks Eimantas Stanionis would be more of a problem for Thurman than Boots Ennis would due to his toughness.
It would be fun to see how Thurman would deal with Boots’ seek & destroy type of fighting style, particularly his body punching. Boots is a devastating body puncher, and he would obviously target that area if he were to fight ‘One Time’ Thurman.
The fight might end up being loudly booed by fans, though, if Thurman were to run around the ring all night to escape Boots’ pressure.
One thing is for sure. We’d see much less offense from Thurman against Boots Ennis than we did in his comeback fight last weekend against former WBA light welterweight champion Mario Barrios.
Thurman picked a safe opponent in Barrios, who is slow and lacks power. Barrios was clearly well-vetted by Thurman’s team and deemed a non-threat. Would they give Ennis a chance to fight Thurman? I doubt it.
If Thurman wanted to show the boxing world that he was for real and wanted to earn a title shot against WBO 147-lb champion Terence Crawford or the winner of the Errol Spence Jr. vs. Yordenis Ugas fight, facing Boots Ennis would be the way to go.
#3 IBF, #3 WBA, #6 WBC, Ennis is a six-year professional, and the best names thus far on his resume are Thomas Dulorme, Sergey Lipinets, Juan Carlos Abreu, and Chris Van Heerden.
“I feel like he can get Boots Ennis out of there, but Eimantas Stanionis is going to be there,” said Shawn Porter on The Porter Way Podcast on who Keith Thurman should fight next.
“Boots is overrated,” said Porter. “This is why I say he’s overrated. Everyone is so hyped up on him, but he hasn’t been in the ring with any world champions yet. I need it to start happening. I’m just tired of hearing it,” said Porter.
If it were so easy for younger fighters like Boots Ennis and Vergil Ortiz Jr to get world title shots against the likes of Spence, Ugas, or Crawford, they Wouldn’t need to work their way into mandatory spots to fight them. Unfortunately, none of those champions have given Boots Ennis a chance to fight them.
“Everybody talks about Boots Ennis like he’s going to smash everybody he gets in the ring with. Not giving ANYBODY a chance,” said Porter.
