Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis and Eimantas Stanionis are close to a two-belt, IBF and WBO, welterweight unification fight for April.
Ennis-Stanionis In April?
IBF champion Boots Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) will be facing the first high-quality opponent of his career if it gets made, and it’ll be interesting to fans to see how he responds to the power and pressure from WBA 147-lb champion Stanionis (15-0, 9 KOs).
If the fight gets made, it’ll be a Matchroom shown on DAZN. Whether it would be placed on PPV is questionable because Stanionis isn’t well known. Boots hasn’t reached that level yet due to his lackluster opposition throughout 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 February 22nd card on DAZN PPV in Riyadh. Boots was rumored to have been offered a career-high payday of $8 million, which is a crazy amount for him to turn down.
But he wants to unify the welterweight division to collect all four belts before moving up, and he’s vowing to finish what he started, come hell or high water. You hope Jaron doesn’t live to regret it later.
Can Boots Handle Stanionis?
“Will we finally get that Unification bout at welterweight that he’s been waiting for?” said Bernardo Osuna to the State of Boxing, talking about Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis wanting a unification fight against WBA champion Eimantas Stanionis or one of the other champions.
“They’re getting closer for sure, and it’s a really tough test for Boots. He’s looking at a fight against Eimantas Stanionis, who I think is one of the most underrated fighters in all of boxing,” said Mike Coppinger. “He lost all of 2023 after several fights against Vergil Ortiz were canceled, and I’m told they’re closing in on a deal for a fight in April. No deal yet, though.
“This is a big step up for Boots, who hasn’t fought anyone tough yet. Stanionis brings the pressure; he can punch, and I hope the fight is going to get done. That’ll be a Matchroom show on DAZN,” said Coppinger.
It’s a major step up for Ennis for who he’s been facing during the last nine years, and it’s not a sure thing that he’s going go win this fight. Stanionis is a good fighter with power, and Boots gets hit a lot in his fights. He depends on his offense being his defense, and those types of fighters don’t do well long-term.
Eventually, they run into someone with too much power, and they get knocked out. What was surprising was how Ennis was getting lit up by Karen Chukhadzhian in his last fight on November 9th, and he’s not known for being a big puncher.
Finally Stepping Up
“It’s about time Boots gets in the ring with somebody,” said Tim Bradley. “I can tell you that. He had plenty of opportunities to get in the ring with many guys, Vergil Ortiz at that, but he chose not to. This has obviously been his plan from the beginning. He wants to unify titles against Stanionis.”
Bradley is right. It is about time that Ennis finally fought someone because it sure did look weak how he rejected the fight against Vergil Jr on February 22nd.
“I just got finished studying film four days ago. It is going to be an exciting fight,” said Bradley. “Stanionis is a come-forward fighter, very aggressive. He throws punches in bunches. He can punch hard with either hand, but so can Boots. But the difference is that Stanionis, I don’t think he understands trigonometry.
“He don’t understand angles. He don’t understand how to get himself in a different position, because all he knows is gas and no brake,” said Bradley about Stanionis’ flaws.