Shawn Porter says he doesn’t regret saying that unbeaten young welterweight contender Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis “overrated” by fans at this point in his six-year professional career.
Porter isn’t downgrading the 24-year-old Boots Ennis’ ability as a fighter by saying that he’s “overrated” by fans. He wants to wait and see him prove himself against the elite in the 147-lb division before he says he’s the next big thing in the division.
Unfortunately, or Boots, he’s probably not going to get a chance to show what he can go against the top rung welterweights until they’re completely over-the-hill.
Without champions Errol Spence Jr, Yordenis Ugas, or Terence Crawford being ordered to defend against Boots Ennis by the sanctioning bodies, they’re doubtful to give him a shot.
Ennis is currently ranked #3 IBF, #3 WBA, #5 WBO and #6 WBC at welterweight. For him to be made mandatory, he will need to be ordered by one of those four sanctioning bodies to participate in a title eliminator.
Interestingly, Ennis believes he will be a world champion at 147 by the end of 2022, but that doesn’t seem realistic.
Even if one of the sanctioning bodies does order a title eliminator and Ennis wins that fight, it’ll be at least a year before he’s given a title shot.
Porter: Boots doesn’t wash top 4
“I think that probably is the wrong term to use, ‘overrated.’ Maybe unproven, but I feel like he’s proven,” said Shawn Porter to Fight Hub TV on his comment about Boots Ennis being ‘overrated.’
“He definitely doesn’t wash the top three or four guys in the welterweight division,” Porter said of Ennis. “Honestly, he’s a problem and might beat all of those top four guys.
“I’m a fan of his, and I definitely think he’s going to be next. There’s definitely competition for him [in the top four]. I know he has the potential to beat one, two, three, and four in the welterweight division.
“But he also has the potential of going all 12 rounds with all of those guys and not wash those guys, beat those guys, and possibly lose to two out of the top four guys in the division.
“If he were to lose, a great fight in a split decision on the scorecards is Terence Crawford and Errol Spence Jr. I think those guys are still very much elite and have swum in the ocean with the sharks,” said Porter.
In 34-year-old Crawford’s case, he’s probably going to stay away from Ennis entirely because he wants to maximize the amount of time he has left in the game.
Crawford isn’t young enough to put time and energy into beating the younger lions like Ennis or Vergil Ortiz Jr. unless there’s the potential to make a lot of money in those fights.
Spence hasn’t been fighting a lot in the last couple of years due to injuries he sustained in a car crash and sparring.
It’s reasonable to assume that Spence will likely only fight once a year from this point on, and that’s going to make it tough for Ennis to get a title shot against him in a timely fashion.
Ennis’ best wins as a pro have come against the Thomas Dulorme and Sergey Lipinets, Thomas Dulorme and Chris van Heerden. Those are not great fighters and nowhere near the top at 147.
Boots Ennis unproven
“I think Boots can outswim them all, but we have not seen him in the ocean yet,” said Porter. “We have not seen him in the ocean with other sharks yet. We’ve seen him a lake with some old sharks, but nothing like the guys out there now,” said Porter.
“I said what I said, and I meant what I said,” Porter continued. “When I used the phrase ‘overrated,” I’m basically throwing that at anyone who does not follow the boxing game and has not watched Jaron Ennis since he was in the Golden Gloves as an amateur, since he lost the Olympic trials to one of the Russell brothers, and since he was professional.
“A lot of people in the boxing game don’t know about these fighters until other people start talking about them. What people say, I am not in full agreement with. I’m in full agreement with, ‘he’s the next.’
“What I’m not in full agreement with is when people say, ‘He’s going to wash that fighter and that fighter.’ Let those fights happen. To give the stigma that he’s going to wash every fighter he gets in the ring with,” said Porter.
Ennis is unproven, and that’s not going to change unless one of the champions gives him a shot. What would begreat is if Ennis’ management can get him one or two of these names while he waits for the champions to face him eventually:
- Conor Benn
- Vergil Ortiz Jr
- DavidAvanesyan
- Keith Thurman
- Jamal James
- Eimantas Stanionis
- Egidijus Kavaliauskas
- Rashidi Ellis
- Kell Brook
