The four names that have received offers for Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis’ debut at 154 have been revealed. It’s not the names that fans had hoped to see for the former unified two-belt welterweight champion Ennis (34-0, 30 KOs).
Ennis wanted a tune-up to get some experience at junior middleweight before tackling the bigger names like Vergil Ortiz Jr. Initially, there was talk of Boots wanting two tune-ups, but that would be asking a lot of his promoter Eddie Hearn to allow him to burn through two fights of his contract extension with Matchroom.
Boots Ennis’ 154-Pound Opponent List
Rashidi Ellis
Charles Conwell
Josh Kelly
Andreas Katzourakis
Credit: Brunch Boxing.
There’s not much to like about this list. You have to call it a three-fighter list because Josh Kelly and his manager/trainer, Adam Booth, have already rejected the lowball offer made to them by Hearn. It doesn’t look like Hearn is going to sweeten the offer because it would require him to cough up Riyadh Season-type money. That wouldn’t make sense for a tune-up fight for Ennis.
Rashidi Ellis is a welterweight. So, making an offer to him suggests that this isn’t really about a tune-up to get Boots prepared for fighting at 154, but rather just a regular warm-up fight to get the ring rust out.
Ennis just fought on April 12th, so he shouldn’t need a warm-up fight unless it were to get him ready for fighting 154-pounders.
Charles Conwell lost his last fight to Jorge Garcia by a 12-round split decision. As bad as Conwell looked in that fight, he wouldn’t be useful to prepare Ennis for fighting at 154.
The ‘Deadbeat’ Fighter’s Actions
Fans feel that Ennis is a deadbeat type of fighter who is sabotaging his career by making strange decisions. He’d resisted moving up to 15 last year, saying he wanted to stay at welterweight to complete his goal of becoming undisputed champion. He waited a year before finally realizing that it wasn’t worth the time investment for him to achieve his goal.
If Hearn has an escape clause for Ennis’ new contract with Matchroom, now is the time to use it to avoid paying him for low-quality tune-ups one after another.
Now, Ennis is looking to take a needless tune-up fight at 154 against poor opposition that won’t prepare him to fight Vergil Ortiz Jr. or any of the top fighters in the division.