Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis needs to make sure he isn’t sidelined for his mega-fight negotiations against Teofimo Lopez in early 2025. Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) felt he was blindsided by being offered a fight against Vergil Ortiz Jr. on February 22.
The “outside the circle” excuse.
This time around, IBF welterweight champion Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) must be involved as a bout against Teofim (21-1, 13 KOs) will boost his slowly advancing career.
Fans already don’t believe Boots’ excuse for choosing not to fight Vergil, seeing it as a case of old-fashioned fearmongering. His last opponent, Karen Chouhadjian, humiliated him on Nov. 9, and Ortiz Jr. could do a lot worse. Ennis’ excuse of not being in touch with his team has fallen flat with fans, who feel he lacks courage after what happened to him against Karen.
Lopez shows he’s not afraid to take on the challenge of moving up to 147. It seems too bad that Ennis wasn’t willing to do the same thing by moving up to 154 in one fight to challenge Vergil Jr. for his WBC interim title at His Excellency Turkey Alalshikh’s show in Riyadh on February 22.
Teofimo began his career at lightweight and moved up to 140 in 2022. Theo has only had five fights at featherweight and now makes the jump from 147 to challenge Boots. That’s impressive.
The downside to Ennis taking this fight against Lopez is that if he is defeated or struggles to win, his stock will drop even more than it currently is after his decision to not take part in the Vergil Jr. contest. It would be hard to see Boots bounce back from a loss or a poor showing against Theophilus and become a popular guy.
Proving doubters wrong
Lance Pagmaier reports that Teofimo’s promoter, Bob Arum, is in talks with Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn to schedule the fight for a joint DAZN/ESPN PPV event early next year. Now that Terence Crawford has moved up in weight, that’s the best fight that can be made for Boots at 147.
We have to wait and see if this fight will be made as it has yet to be negotiated. Teofimo could decide to play on the A side with Ennis, which will sink any chances in the match. Boots sees himself as the king of the 147-lb division right now in terms of talent. Connor Benn, Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia are more popular than Ennis because they have personalities.
Ennis wants to be a star, but he can’t do it unless he negotiates a fight with Theophimus and faces Hani, Ryan and Ben.