Leaving behind a scintillating title-unification victory behind him for the promise of boxing’s best division, Jaron “Boots” Ennis defused the excitement over his entry by selecting virtual unknown Uisma Lima as his Saturday opponent.
“If you’re choosing to fight these guys … I want people looking forward to his next step up. He needs a big opponent,” ProBoxTV analyst and former welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi said on an episode of “BoxingScene Today”.
Philadelphia’s Ennis, 34-0 (30 KOs), is taking his fifth consecutive bout in the Northeast, bringing Portugal’s Lima, 14-1 (10 KOs), to Philadelphia for the DAZN-streamed bout despite the presence of several top-tier 154lbs fighters.
One of those, unbeaten WBC interim champion Vergil Ortiz Jnr, will fight November 8 near his hometown in Texas, hoping to set up a 2026 meeting with Ennis between the DAZN fighters.
“When you consistently fight at this level, your own level starts to diminish … it causes fighters to stagnate,” Malignaggi said. “I wonder if Ennis [age 28] is at risk of that?
“This [opponent choice] could be a conscious choice by Team Ennis or his promoters trying to get his feet wet at 154 … his feet are wet. Jump in the deep end. You wonder if there’s some Gervonta Davis syndrome to this: Do you want to step up, or is this the game you want to play?”
Malignaggi is referencing Ennis’ recent opponent list. Before his impressive sixth-round stoppage of WBA welterweight champion Eimantas Stanionis to unify belts in April, Ennis fought Karen Chukhadzhian twice with other dates against David Avanesyan and Roiman Villa.
At welterweight, Ennis had a legitimate case that champions Terence Crawford and Errol Spence Jnr were big-leaguing him because of where they stood in their careers.
Now, the junior-middleweight class includes champions Sebastian Fundora, Bakhram Murtazaliev, Xander Zayas and contenders Ortiz, Israil Madrimov (also promoted by Ennis promoter Eddie Hearn), Jesus Ramos and Ortiz’s opponent, former title challenger Erickson Lubin.
Lima is ranked No. 8 by the IBF and WBA while Ennis is the WBA and WBC No. 1 contender.
“At 154, Ennis is one of the bigger names,” Malignaggi said.
Trainer Robert Garcia, a ProBoxTV analyst who corners Ortiz, said Ennis should feel obligated to “take it up a notch,” that he “has pressure on him to display versus an opponent hardly anyone knows. When the name is not a threat, [a fighter sometimes] doesn’t perform that well.
“I want to see the best of ‘Boots’ Ennis to say he’s ready to challenge everyone in the division.”
Malignaggi reminded how Ortiz, a year younger than Ennis, has greeted 154lbs by defeating former WBC interim champion Serhii Bohachuk and former WBA champion Madrimov in consecutive fights before now moving to Lubin.
Ennis is a -3000 favorite over Lima.
“It’s like Vergil is leaving [Ennis] in the background now … they’re moving on two different conveyor belts – the ‘A’ level and the ‘B’ level,” Malignaggi said. “You can overmarinate him. There’s a timing here and I think Ennis’ timing should be right now … 2026 should definitely be.”
