IBF welterweight champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis’s sickly, ghoulish appearance will cost him in his unification fight against WBA champ Eimanstas Stanionis this Saturday night at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Ennis has been pushing himself to the limit to cut to 147 to make weight today, and he may have gone too far. If he loses to Stanionis (15-0, 9 KOs), many fans will jump off his ship, viewing him as another example of a fake made to look better than he is due to soft matchmaking.
Weight Cut Madness
Assuming Boots does lose, he’s got to take a good hard look in the mirror and face the truth. He doesn’t belong at 147. Ennis should be fighting at least at 154, if not 160. When you’re cutting down from the 180s, it’s foolish to be fighting at welterweight. If Boots lacks confidence in himself that much, he shouldn’t be fighting.
Options for Ennis after losing to Stanionis:
- Move up to 154
- Rebuild at 147
- Fight Stanionis again
- Retire
You can rule out Ennis moving up to 154 if he gets beaten by Stanionis because his confidence will be gone at that point, and he won’t want to mix it up with the predatory sharks in that division. If he chooses to rematch Stanionis, he’ll be taking a considerable risk because if he loses, that’s the end of the line for him. There would be no returning because the fans he has left would quickly abandon him.
Ghoulish and Stubborn
Boots (33-0, 29 KOs) has looked gaunt all week from cutting weight, and you can tell that he’s pushing himself hard to get down to the welterweight limit for this fight. It shows how stubborn and desperate Ennis is to stay at 147 to become an undisputed champion. He reportedly cuts down from the 180s for his fight, an extreme amount of weight for a welterweight to take off to campaign in the 147-pound weight class.
People are pushing Ennis to move up to 154 so he can stop killing himself with his drastic weight cuts. They see how he looks almost ghoulish in appearance, and they want him to start campaigning at junior middleweight, where he doesn’t need to put himself through hell when making weight.
2025-04-11 15:16:14
