The biggest fight of this week (this during an admittedly pretty quiet schedule) is now a little bit bigger. Maybe. For whatever you might think about the various world titles that are up for grabs these days, and whether or not you think the winning of one or more of these belts actually means too much, Saturday night’s welterweight fight between Jaron Ennis, 34-0(30) and Uisma Lima, 14-1(10) will now contest the WBA interim title.
As has been reported by The Ring, the fight in Philly, originally set to be a WBA elimination bout, got an upgrade, and nobody outside of the folks at the WBA seem to know exactly why. But “Boots” will take it, as will Lima. Ennis, who, along with his promoter Eddie Hearn, is predicting all kinds of greatness at his new weight of 154 pounds, will no doubt be pleased to know he will now take home a title (albeit an interim title) should he do the job on Lima he is saying he will do.
Lima, who is talking a great fight himself, with the largely unknown underdog saying people will know his name come late Saturday, and that Hearn will then sign HIM up, will also get extra motivation from knowing that a belt will be on the line when he welcomes Ennis to the ’54 division. So, too many belts aside, Saturday’s winner – and “Boots” is an overwhelming favourite to get the victory – will go on to perhaps fight full WBA welterweight champ Abass Baraou, who was recently elevated to full champion after beating Yoenis Tellez to take the “regular” version of the title in August.
It sure is confusing when it comes to the belts, to the champions, but fans cannot be fooled, and they know who the best fighters in each division are. Ennis has yet to prove he is the main man at ’54, and a win on Saturday will not change things. Ennis has to defeat the likes of Sebastian Fundora, Bakhram Murtazaliev, and, the man we all want to see him throw down with, Vergil Ortiz, in order to prove he’s the man at super-welterweight.
The journey begins on Saturday night in his hometown. And now “Boots” will have to pay a sanctioning fee should he collect the WBA interim strap.