Jaron “Boots” Ennis and Eimantas Stanionis are poised for a two-belt welterweight fight, IBF and WBO, in April.
Ennis-Stanionis in April?
IBF champion Boots Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) will face the first quality opponent of his career if it is made possible and it will be interesting for fans to see how he responds to the power and pressure of WBA 147 responds -lb champion Stanionis (15-0, 9 KOs).
If the fight goes ahead there will be a matchroom that will be shown on DAZN. Whether it will be put on PPV is questionable as Stanionis is not well known. Boots has not yet reached this level, having offered little resistance during his nine-year professional career.
Ennis, 27, has received a lot of criticism for his decision not to take the fight against WBC interim junior middleweight champion Vergil Ortiz Jr. on Turki Al-Sheikh’s undercard on February 22 at DAZN PPV in Riyadh. Boots were rumored to have been offered a career-high salary of 8 million dollars, That’s an insane amount for him to turn down.
But he wants to unify the welterweight division to get all four belts before moving up, and he vows to finish what he started, come hell or high water. They hope that Jaron won’t have to regret it later.
Can Boots handle Stanionis?
“Are we finally getting the welterweight unification fight he’s been waiting for?” Bernardo Osuna said State of boxingHe talks about Jaron “Boots” Ennis seeking a unification fight against WBA champion Eimantas Stanionis or one of the other champions.
“They’re definitely getting closer and it’s a really tough test for Boots. He expects a fight against Eimantas Stanionis, who in my opinion is one of the most underrated fighters in all of boxing,” said Mike Coppinger. “He has lost all of 2023 after several fights against Vergil Ortiz were canceled and I am told they are agreeing to a deal for a fight in April. However, no deal yet.
“This is a big step forward for Boots, who hasn’t fought hard against anyone yet. Stanionis puts pressure on; He can punch and I hope the fight goes to the end. “It will be a Matchroom show on DAZN,” said Coppinger.
It’s a big step up for Ennis from who he’s competed against in the last nine years and it’s not certain he’ll win this fight. Stanionis is a good fighter with power and Boots gets hit often in his fights. He relies on his offense being his defense, and these types of fighters don’t do well in the long run.
Eventually they encounter someone with too much power and fall unconscious. What was surprising was how Ennis was attacked by Karen Chukhadzhian in his last fight on November 9th, and he is not known for being a big puncher.
Finally take a step forward
“It’s time for Boots to get in the ring with someone,” Tim Bradley said. “I can tell you that. He had a lot of opportunities to get in the ring with a lot of guys, especially Vergil Ortiz, but he chose not to. That was obviously his plan from the start. He wants to unify the titles against Stanionis.”
Bradley is right. It’s time for Ennis to finally fight someone because he looked really weak the way he turned down the fight against Vergil Jr. on February 22nd.
“I just finished my film studies four days ago. It will be an exciting fight,” said Bradley. “Stanionis is an open-minded fighter, very aggressive. He throws punches in bunches. He can hit hard with both hands, but so can Boots. But the difference is that Stanionis, I don’t think, understands trigonometry.
“He doesn’t understand angles. He doesn’t understand how to put himself in a different position because all he knows is gas and no brake,” Bradley said of Stanionis’ weaknesses.