Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis and Eimantas Stanionis are close to a two-belt welterweight unification fight, IBF and WBO for April.
Ennis-Stanionis in April?
IBF champion Boots Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) will face the first high-quality opponent of his career if it comes to fruition, and it will be interesting for fans to see how he reacts to the power and pressure of the WBA 147. -lb champion Stanionis (15-0, 9 KO).
If the fight goes ahead, it will be a Matchroom broadcast on DAZN. It is questionable if he would be placed on PPV since Stanionis is not well known. Boots has yet to reach that level due to his lackluster opposition throughout his nine-year professional career.
Ennis, 27, received widespread criticism for his decision not to face WBC interim junior middleweight champion Vergil Ortiz Jr. on the Feb. 22 Turki Al-Sheikh card on DAZN PPV in Riyadh. Boots was rumored to have been offered a career-high salary of 8 million dollars, which is a crazy amount to refuse.
But he wants to unify the welterweight division to reclaim all four belts before moving up, and he’s committed to finishing what he started, against all odds. You hope Jaron doesn’t live to regret it later.
Can Boots Handle Stanionis?
“Will we finally get that Welterweight Unification fight he’s been waiting for?” said Bernardo Osuna at State of Boxingtalking about Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis wanting a unification fight against WBA champion Eimantas Stanionis or one of the other champions.
“They’re getting closer, that’s for sure, and it’s a really tough test for Boots. He’s eyeing a fight against Eimantas Stanionis, who I think is one of the most underrated fighters in all of boxing,” Mike Coppinger said. “He lost all of 2023 after several fights against Vergil Ortiz were canceled, and I’m told they’re getting closer to a deal for an April fight. But not yet agreed.
“This is a big step forward for Boots, who has yet to fight anyone hard. Stanionis puts the pressure on; he can punch, and hopefully the fight will be over. It will be a Matchroom show on DAZN,” Coppinger said.
This is a major step up for Ennis for the one he’s faced over the past nine years, and it’s not a given that he’s going to win this fight. Stanionis is a good powerful fighter, and Boots often gets hit in his fights. He relies on his offense as defense, and these types of fighters don’t do well in the long run.
Eventually, they encounter someone with too much power and they are knocked out. What was surprising was how Ennis was lit up by Karen Chukhadzhian in his last fight on November 9, and he is not known to be a big puncher.
Finally, we intensify
“It’s time for Boots to get in the ring with someone,” Tim Bradley said. “I can tell you. He had many opportunities to get in the ring with many guys, Vergil Ortiz no less, but he chose not to. This is obviously his plan all along. He wants to unify the titles against Stanionis.
Bradley is right. It’s time for Ennis to finally fight someone, because the way he dismissed the Vergil Jr fight on February 22 looked weak.
“I just finished my film studies four days ago. It’s going to be an exciting fight,” Bradley said. “Stanionis is an avant-garde fighter, very aggressive. He throws punches in bunches. He can hit hard with both hands, but so can Boots. But the difference is Stanionis, I don’t think he 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 brakes,” Bradley said of Stanionis’ flaws.
