Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis must ensure he is not kept out of his negotiating cycle for a big fight 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 22nd.
The “Out Of The Loop” excuse.
This time, IBF middleweight champion Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) needs to be involved because a fight against Teofimo (21-1, 13 KOs) will boost his slow-moving 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 Chukhadzhian, humiliated him on Nov. 9, and Ortiz Jr. could do a lot worse. Ennis’ excuse for keeping himself out of the loop with his team has fallen flat on the fans, who see him as lacking courage after what happened to him against Karen.
Lopez shows he’s not afraid to rise to the challenge of moving up to 147. It seems too bad that Ennis wasn’t willing to do the same by moving up to 154 for a fight to challenge Virgil Jr. for the WBC interim title in His Excellency Turkey Alalshikh’s show in Riyadh on February 22.
Teofimo began his career at lightweight and moved up to 140 in 2022. Teo’s only had five fights at light welterweight and now makes the jump to 147 to challenge Boots. This is impressive.
The downside for Ennis in this fight against Lopez is that if he loses or fights to win, his stock will drop even more than it is now after his decision to not take the Vergil Jr. contest. It would be hard to see Boots coming back from a loss or a poor performance against Teofimo and becoming a popular guy.
Proof that doubters are wrong
Lance Pugmire reports that Teofimo’s promoter Bob Arum is negotiating 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, it’s the best possible fight for Boots at 147.
We have to wait and see if this fight will happen because it still needs to be negotiated. Teofimo may opt to play A-side with Ennis, which will reduce the chances of the match. Botch sees himself as the king of the 147-pound division he’s in right now in terms of talent. Conor Benn, Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia are more popular than Ennis because they have personalities.
Ennis wants to become a star, but he can’t do it unless he negotiates the Teofimo match and faces Haney, Ryan and Benn.
