Fans want to know who Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis will fight next after his disappointing performance in his Rematch against Karen Chukhadzhian on November 9th in Philadelphia.
After the fight, Boots, 27, looked like a mentally broken fighter when his promoter Eddie Hearn congratulated him. He knew he had performed poorly again, and he’d been a bigger letdown this time than the first time he fought Chukhadzhhian. Ennis wouldn’t even look Hearn in the eyes, showing classic signs of the shame response.
Hearn Backtracks on Potential Fight
What we do know is Boots’ Ennis’ promoter Eddie Hearn appears to have changed his mind making the fight against the unbeaten WBC interim 154-lb champion Vergil Ortiz Jr. in early 2025. Hearn hasn’t come out and outright rejected the idea of Ennis fighting Ortiz, but he’s gone quiet about the fight.
That’s a signal that he’s not interested in matching Boots against Vergil and ruining his fighter’s popularity. The fight with Chukhadzhian did more than enough damage.
Vergil’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, isn’t happy about Hearn deciding against letting Boots (33-0, 29 KOs) take the fight because he was confident that his fighter was going to hand the popular Philadelphia native his first career defeat.
Hearn has got to be concerned about Boots after watching him struggle against the underdog Chukhadzhian (24-3, 13 KOs) in front of a large crowd at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on November 9th.
Although Boots won the fight by a 12-round unanimous decision by the scores of 119-107, 117-109, and 116-110, his performance showed that he’s incapable of moving up to 154 to take rights against any of the top-rung fighters.
Hearn hasn’t yet said which fighter he’d like to match Ennis against next, but it’s likely he’ll resume attempting to match unification fights at 147 against one of the champions. He recently came close to setting up a fight between Ennis and WBO champion Brian Norman Jr., but he chose not to meet the asking price for the belt-holder.
Jaron Ennis: Who’s Next at 147?
Assuming Vergil Ortiz Jr. is permanently out of the picture, these are the likely options for Ennis’ next fight in 2025:
– Brian Norman Jr.
– Eimantas Stanionis
– Mario Barrios
– Conor Benn
Norman Jr. would be the likely guy that Hearn will put his energy into matching against Ennis. It’s not a great fight, and there is some danger involved due to the punching power, youth, and toughness of Norman.
