Fans are still buzzing due to the star-arrival performance Jaron “Boots” Ennis put on this past Saturday, as he totally dominated and then stopped a tough fighter who, going in, was expected to give the Philly boxer problems. Ennis, courtesy of his dismantling of the previously unbeaten Eimantas Stanionis, has got us all thinking, wondering, just how great he is; how great he can go on to become.
(Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom)
Whether or not 27-year-old Boots, a two-belt welterweight champion with a 34-0(30), is yet a pound-for-pound fighter is down to opinion. For sure, though, plenty of people feel Ennis should be ranked somewhere in the mythical P-4-P top 10. As for the future, and how much more Ennis can achieve, one man sees total dominance from Boots – and not just at welterweight.
Eddie Hearn, who has been high on Ennis for some time, and was waiting for the, as he puts it, “wow” performance from the man he signed a while back, says Ennis will go on to rule at 147, at 154, and maybe at 160 pounds.
“I don’t see anyone beating him, definitely not at 147 pounds. I don’t really see anyone beating him at 154, and I’m not even sure that I see anyone beating him at 160 pounds,” Hearn said to Boxing News after Ennis’ win over Stanionis. “My job is to hype these guys up, but what you saw tonight was a performance that allows me to do it genuinely. We needed that ‘wow’ performance, and he delivered massively.”
Again, not all fans are yet sold on the idea of Ennis being the next Hearns, the next Leonard, the next Mayweather, or the next Curry. But for sure, the future looks bright for Boots. And the future looks exciting for us fans. But the biggest possible fights for Boots need to be made, and hopefully, the testing, career-defining fights will be made for the fighter who has largely put Philadelphia back on the map.
Fights we need to see:
Ennis Vs. Brian Norman. In another unification fight. Mario Barrios, to see if Boots can scoop up all the belts at 147. A super-fight with Terence Crawford, this one unlikely, but if Crawford does box on, and comes back down to either 147 or 154, after his massive fight with Canelo Alvarez.
At 154 (and of course, by the time he goes up there, the landscape may well have changed): Ennis Vs. Vergil Ortiz is a potential classic. Ennis Vs. Sebastian Fundora, to see how Ennis would cope with such a tall, at times dangerous fighter.
At 160 (and again, the landscape will almost certainly have changed by the time Boots gets to 160, if he in fact does so): Ennis Vs. Janibek Alimkhanuly, to see if Boots can beat the most avoided middleweight out there.
It certainly will be fascinating, and again, exciting, seeing where Ennis goes over the next three to five years.