This Saturday night from the Well Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Jaron Ennis faces Uisma Lima in the nights main event on DAZN. The former unified welterweight champion is now campaigning as a junior middleweight. This begins an eventful stretch for this loaded division which sees some of their biggest names in action within weeks of one another.
On October 25, the WBC champion, Sebastian Fundora, faces Keith Thurman. Then a couple of weeks later Vergil Ortiz takes on fellow contender, Erickson Lubin.
So in a month span you will have had Ennis, Fundora and Ortiz in separate fights. The question is: when will these guys, along with the likes of WBO belt-holder, Xander Zayas, and IBF champion, Bakhram Murtalaziev, mix with one another? 154 has been lauded as one of the best in boxing. Perhaps that's true, but at a certain point these guys should actually have some sort of round-robin, right?
Or is that just not possible in today's boxing climate?
Matchroom
Nothing exemplifies the modern boxing business than the fact that Fundora and Ortiz are fighting just weeks apart versus separate foes and not one another. Fundora, as noted above, is the WBC champion, Ortiz is their interim champion. The reality is that Fundora is aligned with PBC and his card will be headlining an Amazon Prime pay-per-view card, while Ortiz is represented by Golden Boy Promotions, which has an exclusive deal with DAZN.
So once again, this is the business of boxing getting in the way of the sport of boxing.
But at what point will Mauricio Sulaiman of the WBC mandate Fundora-Ortiz? Or is he content to collect dual sanctioning fees as these two pretend like one another doesn't exist. And doesn't 'interim' mean for the time being, a short spell? The problem is that too many times these 'interim' titles become permanent in status. And quite frankly, many of those who have this designation don't seem to press the issue.
Make no doubt about it, Fundora-Ortiz, is a fight that would do some business, it's one that the hardcore denizens of the sport would look forward to. But again, do the fans ever matter in these things? (By the way, that's a rhetorical question.)
Then you have 'Boots', who is now coming under some fire for facing Lima. It wasn't that long ago that Ennis was a universally lauded fighter. He was highly skilled and has a crowd pleasing style. Recently, he has shown that he can draw significant crowds in his home city of Philly. But some out there believe he has skirted a few fights (namely Terence Crawford and Ortiz) and taking the path of least resistance.
Lima is a relatively unknown figure to most American boxing fans. But Lima is a strong southpaw who isn't hard to find in the ring. He reminds me a bit of former junior welterweight titlist, Juan Urango, with his rugged style. Also, Lima is rated in the top 10 by the IBF, WBC and WBA. Yeah, yeah, I know the ratings for these sanctioning bodies aren't the end all and be all, but this isn't Patrick Charpentier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMxHCt29a90
Given his past accomplishments at 147, Ennis is rated number one by the WBC and WBA, while number two in the WBO and eight in the IBF rankings. (Now, given the situation with the WBC, does that mean Ennis is really the second rated junior middleweight in their organization?) It's clear that Ennis will be fighting for a title sooner rather than later. It's really a question of which one. But not the IBF of course, because 'Boogieman' Bakhram seems to be off-limits for everyone. As for Xander Zayas (WBO), it seems like he will not be in action till Top Rank announces a new television deal.
PBC
This weekends bout is being billed as a WBA 'interim' title fight (good grief, the madness never ends!!) which means that in theory; that should Ennis win he could be in line to face Abass Baraou. Baraou is a guy who everyone seems to be in a rush to face. He's the anti-Murtalaziev.
Here's what I'm thinking if I'm DAZN, should Ennis and Ortiz come out victorious, the network should mandate to both Matchroom Boxing and Golden Boy that Ennis-Ortiz take place in the first quarter of 2026. And yeah, this would be on pay-per-view, of course. Eddie Hearn has made statements that this clash will happen in the first quarter of next year.
https://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_/id/46531876/jaron-ennis-vs-vergil-ortiz-being-lined-q1-2026
Here's a thought, what if Ortiz and Golden Boy -- who actually wanted this bout for this fall -- decide to go in the direction of Fundora? I certainly wouldn't complain. Hey, we need fights.
3KR
This week on 'the 3 Knockdown Rule', Mario Lopez and I preview Ennis-Lima, and talk all things boxing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1ssdKMwUjk&t=11s
To subscribe on your preferred podcast platform, click the Linktree:
