This Saturday night from Atlantic City, welterweight contender, Jaron 'Boots' Ennis, faces Roiman Villa as the headliner on Showtime. For the highly regarded Ennis, this will be his second bout of 2023, after fighting just once last year.
2022 was one that saw him just perform for less than six minutes, as he blew out Custio Clayton early on at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California last May.
Ennis vs Clayton FULL FIGHT: May 15, 2022 | PBC on Showtime
It was another emphatic statement for the Ring Magazine's third ranked 147-pounder. But the rest of the year saw him on the sideline.
"It was frustrating," he admitted while on this week's edition of 'the 3 Knockdown Rule', "because I'd like to stay active. It was up to me, I'd fight every other month, or every month. I just like to fight."
Showtime
A familiar pattern started after the Clayton fight, Ennis tweeting about a hard days work, and giving clues about an impending date -- that would eventually never materialize. While Ennis would like to box as much as he can, at this stage of his career, he is now at the behest of the boxing business. And he pointed out, ''(Terence) Crawford and (Errol) Spence were holding up the division."
At this time last year, those two were still going back-and-forth during negotiations, and with Spence and Crawford controlling all four major belts, the likes of Ennis and fellow rising contender, Vergil Ortiz, had to wait their turns.
Showtime Sports
Ennis was finally give a date, a slot on the Gervonta Davis-Hector Luis Garcia pay-per-view card in Washington DC in early January. And while he pitched a shutout over Karen Chukhadzhian, it wasn't the most crowd pleasing effort. While Chukhadzhian was a spoiler, Ennis, himself wasn't his usual self.
"First of all, I'm glad I went 12 rounds. I was good to go 12 rounds, and I did it on a bad night, what do you think I'm going to do on a 100-percent night?" reasoned Ennis, who improved to 30-0 (27KOs). "So it was a blessing, and I'm glad it went 12 rounds. I don't want to say it was ring rust. I just felt it was that I just waned to get the knockout real bad. I went there looking for it.
"This camp I went back to me having fun and not looking for the knockout. And that's how you're going to get the knockout -- by not looking for it. So you'll see on July 8th, I'm going to shine.''
The rugged Villa (26-1, 24 KOs), who rallied late to upset 'Speedy' Rashidi Ellis on that same card Ennis performed on should present a much more favorable style to look good against.
Showtime Sports
Speaking of Spence-Crawford, that long-awaited bout is scheduled for the end of the month. But there is a good chance there could be at least two chapters of this rivalry with the rematch clause. Which means that Ennis may not get a title shot till at least 2024. He makes it clear that till he wins a belt or two at '47, he isn't going anywhere.
As for the possibility of those two welterweight stalwarts moving up after they clash, Ennis stated, "I'll take the winner of Ortiz- (Eimantas) Stanionis, or I'll fight one of the older guys, Keith Thurman or (Yordenis) Ugas."
At this point, Ennis has to be like Job.
"At the end of the day, you just have to be patience, that's all," said the amiable 26 year old from Philly.
Should he win this upcoming weekend, he could be back before the end of '23.
"Ain't no if, when I win, we're definitely looking at three fights this year," he stated. "We're looking at coming back in November, December."
ORTIZ
Meanwhile, on the same night from San Antonio, Texas from the AT@T Center, the aforementioned Ortiz takes on Stanionis, who holds the 'regular' version of the WBA welterweight title. This is a match-up of Ring Magazine's number four and five rated boxers in the division.
This figures to a crowd pleasing affair, as neither man is hard to find, and both have real offensive arsenals. But this is a bout that has an interesting variable to it -- neither man has been particularly active in the last year or so.
DAZN/Golden Boy
Stanionis (14-0, 9 KOs) was last seen in April of 2022, as he banged out a hard earned 12 round decision against Radzhab Butaev, and then he got caught up in the Spence-Crawford quagmire. While for Ortiz, this is just his second outing since the summer of 2021, and he has suffered two cases of rhabdomyolysis.
Just what impact will this have on Ortiz when he gets hit downstairs by the heavy handed Stanionis?
Tune into DAZN to find out.
3KR
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THE 3 KNOCKDOWN RULE EP #008 MARIO LOPEZ & STEVE KIM | JARON BOOTS ENNIS INTERVIEW
FINAL FLURRIES
Speaking of DAZN, they have a card from Mexico on Friday night that features bright young prospect, Diego Pacheco, and junior lightweight contender, 'Rocky' Hernandez.....So what does the WBO do with their 154-pound title, elevate Tim Tszyu?....Is Dmitry Bivol going to fight this year?....We finally have our summer weather here in Southern California....I can be reached at k9kim@yahoo.com....
