Jaron “Boots” Ennis is now out of the WBC’s junior middleweight rankings.
Ennis, 35-0 (31 KOs), blasted out Uisma Lima in the first round earlier this month in his debut at 154lbs after unifying a pair of world titles at welterweight. The Lima victory earned Ennis the WBA’s secondary “interim” belt behind primary junior middleweight titleholder Abass Baraou.
And because sanctioning bodies usually remove fighters from their rankings when they’ve won another organization’s title, Ennis is no longer rated No. 1 by the WBC in the sanctioning body’s new ratings update, which was released on October 20.
The vacancy allowed Bakary Samake, who was previously positioned second by the WBC, to move up one slot. Samake, 18-0 (12 KOs), is a 22-year-old from France who is scheduled to fight this Saturday against the 25-0 Alejandro Ortiz.
The WBC’s primary titleholder is Sebastian Fundora, while its interim belt is held by Vergil Ortiz Jnr.
After Samake comes Keith Thurman at No. 2, followed by Callum Walsh, Erickson Lubin, Brandon Adams, Ermal Hadribeaj, Serhii Bohachuk, Israil Madrimov, Tim Tszyu, Jorge Garcia Perez, Charles Conwell, Josh Kelly, Andreas Katzourakis, Francisco Veron and Alejandro Silva.
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
