IBF interim welterweight champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis may need to settle for an old-timer for his next fight after the way he demolished his opponent Roiman Villa by a surgeon-like tenth round knockout last Saturday night at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Looking at how he did against the knockout artist Villa (26-2, 24 KOs), Boots may have scared off any potential notable opponents with that performance.
The top-tier names that hold any value for Boots, guys like Keith Thurman, Eimantas Stanionis, and Alexis Rocha, probably won’t want to fight him after what he did to Villa.
With Vergil Ortiz Jr moving up to 154 after his latest health problems, the 147-lb talent pool got thinner, and that’s old-washed guys like Thurman & Ugas are so valuable now for Boots.
Thurman, 34, has already made it known that he’s not going to fight Ennis now. ‘One Time’ could be fighting Ugas next month in another one of his get-back fights to shake off the rust, and after that, Thurman will try and make a play to face the winner of the Errol Spence Jr vs. Terence Crawford fights.
The only way Thurman would agree to a fight with Ennis is if PBC gives him a treasure chest full of money, the kind of dough that he got for the 2019 match against Manny Pacquiao.
That’s probably not going to happen, though, because Thurman has been forgotten by boxing fans due to his many years of inactivity, and new fans see him as some balding old guy that gives frequent interviews with Brian Custer.
“That’s a great fight, and I think it would be easy to make. He’s on this side. If we can’t get Crawford or Spence,” said Jaron Ennis at the post-fight press conference when asked if he’d be open to fighting WBA secondary welterweight champion Eimantas Stanionis next. “I’d take Stanionis, Ugas, or anybody.”
Stanionis hasn’t fought since last April, and he or his promoters might not be keen on fighting Boots coming off that kind of a layoff.
WBA ‘regular’ welterweight champion Stanionis wasted a lot of time trying to get his fight out of the way against Vergil Ortiz with the multiple postponements, and he now has nothing to show for it.
Boots’ options for next fight:
- Yordenis Ugas – best
- Eimantas Stanionis
- Keith Thurman
- Alexis Rocha
Ennis said after the fight that he’d ideally like to face the Errol Spence – Terence Crawford winner of their July 29th undisputed welterweight championship match, but they’re alright signed to have a second contest later in the year.
