Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis looked out of this world good last Saturday night in destroying the pumped-up former IBF 140-lb champion Sergey Lipinets in six rounds at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville Connecticut. Ennis not only passed the test, but he showed that he’s ready to take over the 147-lb division.
Ennis, 23, says he’s ready to take on a top three or top five welterweight if he can get one to agree to a fight with him. The only concern with Ennis facing a top-five 147-pounder is the punching power that many of them possess.
Lipinets was landing some good shots on Ennis when he was coming forward because he forgot his defense when he was attacking.
If Lipinets (16-2-1, 12 KOs) were a natural welterweight with more power and size, he’d have given Ennis something to think about. The fighters in the top five that Ennis could run into will have more pop in their punches than Lipinets.
“It was just me seeing openings, and he wasn’t really as good on the inside as me, so I started getting closer and looking for my big shot. I found it,” Ennis said.
If Ennis can’t buckle down on his defense, he could get knocked out, and it won’t matter how good his boxing skills are.
Lipinets was a decent test, but this guy lost to Mikey Garcia and couldn’t beat Custio Clayton.
“One of the [elite fighters] might want to give me a fight. We’ll see. But I think I’m ready for a top-five, top-three guy,” said Ennis after his win over
Good top-five contender options for Ennis:
- Keith Thurman
- Egidijus Kavaliauskas
- Mikey Garcia
- Vergil Ortiz Jr
- Shawn Porter
- Omar Figueroa Jr.
- David Avanesyan
- Custio Clayton
- Kudratillo Abduqaxorov
Unfortunately, Ennis will not likely get a chance to fight any of those contenders due to the high risk, low reward that he would present to them. If Ennis were a pay-per-view attraction, that would be a different story, but he’s not.
Someone like Figueroa Jr, Kavaliauskas, and Clayton are good options for Ennis. The two-time Olympian ‘Mean Machine’ Kavaliauskas would be a risky fight for Ennis because he can punch, and he’s good enough skills to hang in there long enough to land his bombs. If Ennis’ chin isn’t up to snuff, Kavaliauskas will expose him.
He’s fighting on Showtime regular, and it’s unclear how long it’ll take for him to move to the next level to be a PPV guy. It took Errol Spence seven years before he branched over to pay-per-view, but he had help with him facing the popular Mikey Garcia.
Additionally, Spence had the pedigree going for him in fighting in the 2012 Olympics for the U.S. Boots Ennis never made it to the Olympics after twice getting soundly beaten by Gary Antuanne Russell.