When Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis announced he would be moving up in weight to the stacked 154lb division, a huge buzz followed over the potential matchups that could be made.
Ennis had just come off the performance of his career in April, stopping Eimantas Stanionis inside six rounds and unifying the IBF and WBA titles while doing so. Big fights were talked up by Ennis’ promoter, Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn, with names such as Vergil Ortiz Jnr, Serhii Bohachuk and Jesus Ramos Jnr being thrown around as a potential first opponent. There were some reports that Josh Kelly was also made an offer, but the man to get the call to fight Ennis in his junior middleweight debut turned out to be Uisma Lima. Hearn has also claimed that Ennis has already signed his part of the deal to face Ortiz should he defeat Lima on October 11 in Philadelphia.
Given the amount of talent on offer at 154lbs, fans were left disappointed by Ennis and Hearn’s choice of opponent. Ortiz, who is coming off a hand injury that has kept him out of the ring since his victory over Israil Madrimov in February, selected Erickson Lubin as his “comeback” opponent after a layoff, and was praised for his selection.
Ortiz, for his part, was asked if he was left disappointed by Ennis’ choice for an opponent his 154lb debut.
“I don't know if disappointed is the word, because I don't care who he fights,” Ortiz told BoxingScene. “But, I mean, it's a weird situation to be seeing, as he's a future potential opponent. So I wouldn't say I'm disappointed. It's kind of hard to describe it from my position.
“I mean, I guess I expected more. Because people want to give me shit for getting two tune-ups when I fought, but the thing is, there’s a big difference. I got two tune-ups when I came off a life-threatening illness and I didn’t know if I was going to be the same or not. Whereas he just became a unified champion at 147 and now he's fighting God-knows-who. So I think that's where the criticism comes from. But there's a lot of people with different agendas who don't like their favorite fighter being called a cherry picker.”
Tom Ivers is an amateur boxer who has a masters degree in sports journalism. He had his first bout in 2013, joined BoxingScene in 2024 and is now a key part of the UK and social media teams.
