Shakur Stevenson Wants to see Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis move up to 154 to fight Vergil Ortiz Jr., his WBC interim junior middleweight title.
Stevenson feels that Ennis (32-0, 29 KOs) would have more than enough talent to defeat the 26-year-old Vergil (22-0, 21 KOs), who is coming off a controversial 12-round majority decision win over Serhii Bohachuk on August 10th in Las Vegas. Vergil was overswinging and getting countered all night by Bohachuk.
Boots Ennis, 27, hasn’t said anything about moving up to junior middleweight yet, but he may need to because it doesn’t look like he’s ever going to get the opportunity to unify the 147-lb division. Ennis’ promoter, Eddie Hearn, has run into obstacles when attempting to negotiate fights with the other champions at welterweight. They want too much money.
Ennis is training for his title defense against Karen Chukhadzhian (24-2, 13 KOs) in their rematch on November 9th at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. The IBF ordered the fight, so Ennis had no choice but to face Chukhadzhian again. Ennis wants to make a statement this time by knocking him out.
“I’d like to see Boots go up right now and fight Vergil Ortiz. I think Boots is the truth. Yeah, but Boots is the truth,” said Shakur Stevenson to GBHTV about wanting Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis to move up to 154 to challenge WBC interim junior middleweight champion Vergil Ortiz Jr.
Ennis should move up to 154 to broaden his horizons because it doesn’t look like he’s ever going to get a unification fight at 147. If he stays in the weight class, he’ll continue to run into problems trying to get big fights.
“Vergil is rough, though,” said coach Greg Hackett. “I think Boots would have his way, but Vergil is a big boy.”
“Can Vergil take that [stuff] that Boots is dishing? Can he take that?” said Shakur.
“That’s the question. That MF hit me with a body shot today, and he had on 18-ounce, and we wasn’t even sparring,” said Hackett about Boots.
“He sparred me, and he jabbed me out of the ring. I said, ‘What kind of jab is that? It’s coming at 100 miles per hour. Okay, I’ll get on my defense,’” said Shakur about Boots Ennis,
