When it comes to the WBC’s junior middleweight rankings, Jaron “Boots” Ennis has gone from first to second and now back to first again, all without having a single bout at 154lbs.
In August, the WBC installed Ennis at No. 1 even though the rising unified welterweight titleholder had not yet fought at junior middleweight. That led the man Ennis supplanted, Serhii Bohachuk, to appeal to the WBC for reinstatement, an appeal Bohachuk won.
But Bohachuk lost a wide decision in his rematch with Brandon Adams on the September 13 preliminary undercard of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford. The WBC has since released a ratings update on September 17, and Bohachuk, 26-3 (24 KOs), dropped all the way from No. 1 to No. 8.
That allowed Ennis, 34-0 (30 KOs), to return to the No. 1 spot. The 28-year-old Ennis is scheduled to face Uisma Lima – ranked 10th by the WBC and ninth by the IBF and WBA – on October 11 in a WBA elimination bout.
Given that sanctioning bodies tend to not rank fighters when they hold belts with other organizations, expect Ennis to drop from the WBC’s list if he tops Lima.
Ennis is otherwise not the mandatory challenger for the WBC title held by Sebastian Fundora, who himself has an October 25 date with Keith Thurman. That’s because the WBC has an interim titleholder, Vergil Ortiz Jnr, who topped Bohachuk in August 2024 for that secondary belt.
The rest of the WBC’s ratings at 154lbs have Bakary Samake at No. 2, followed by Thurman, Callum Walsh, Erickson Lubin, Adams, Ermal Hadribeaj, Bohachuk, Israil Madrimov, Lima, Tim Tszyu, Jorge Garcia Perez, Charles Conwell, Josh Kelly and Andreas Katzourakis.
Jesus Ramos, who had been ranked as the WBC’s No. 3 junior middleweight last month, is instead now ranked at middleweight ahead of his October 25 bout with Shane Mosley Jnr for the sanctioning body’s interim belt at 160lbs.
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.
