Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis and Eimantas Stanionis are close to an IBF and WBO welterweight unification fight for April.
Ennis-Stanionis In April?
IBF champion Boots Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) will face the first high quality opponent of his career if he does, and it will be interesting for fans to see how he responds to the power and pressure from WBA 147 – champion Stanionis (15-0, 9 KOs).
If the match takes place, it will be a Matchroom show on DAZN. Whether he will be placed on the PPV is doubtful because Stanionis is not well known. Boots has yet to reach that level due to lackluster opposition throughout his nine-year professional career.
Ennis, 27, has come under fire for his decision not to take part in the fight against interim WBC junior middleweight champion Vergil Ortiz Jr. on Turki Al-Sheikh’s Feb. 22 card on DAZN PPV in Riyadh. Boots were rumored to have been offered a top payday 8 million dollars, which is an insane amount to drop.
But he wants to unify the welterweight division to collect all four belts before moving up, and vows to finish what he started, come hell or high water. You hope Jaron doesn’t live to regret it later.
Can the boots handle Stanionis?
“Are we finally going to have that welterweight Unification fight he’s been waiting for?” Bernardo Osuna said in the State of Boxingtalking about Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis wanting a unification fight against WBA champion Eimantas Stanionis or one of the other champions.
“They’re definitely getting closer, and it’s a really tough test for Boots. He’s looking at a fight against Eimantas Stanionis, who I think is one of the most underrated fighters in all of boxing,” said Mike Coppinger. “He’s lost all of 2023 after several fights against Vergil Ortiz were canceled and I’m told they’re getting close to a deal for a fight in April. No deal, though.
“This is a big step for Boots, who hasn’t raced anyone hard yet. Does Stanionis bring the pressure? he can hit and hopefully the fight will happen. This will be a Matchroom show on DAZN,” said Coppinger.
It’s a big step up for Ennis from who he’s faced over the past nine years, and it’s not a given that he’s going to win this fight. Stanionis is a good fighter with power and Bots gets hit a lot in his fights. It depends on his defense being his defense and those types of fighters don’t do well in the long run.
Eventually, they meet someone with too much power and get knocked out. What was surprising was how Ennis was lit up by Karen Chukhadzhian in his last fight on Nov. 9, and he’s not known for being a big puncher.
Finally Stepping Up
“It’s about time Boots got in the ring with someone,” said Tim Bradley. “I can tell you this. He had a lot of opportunities to get in the ring with a lot of guys, Vergil Ortiz, but he chose not to. This was obviously his plan from the beginning. He wants to unite titles against Stanionis”.
Bradley is right. It’s about time Ennis finally wrestled someone because he sure looked weak how he turned down the match against Vergil Jr on February 22nd.
“I just finished my studies four days ago. It will be an exciting race,” Bradley said. “Stanionis is an aggressive fighter, very aggressive. He throws punches in bunches. He can hit hard with both hands, but so can Bots. But the difference is that Stanionis doesn’t think he understands trigonometry.
“He doesn’t understand angles. He doesn’t understand how to put himself in a different position because all he knows is gas and not brake,” Bradley said of Stanionis’ flaws.
2025-01-19 05:26:00
