Jaron “Boots” Ennis (35-0, 31 KO) made his super welterweight debut on Saturday night against Uisma “Monstro” Lima (14-2, 10 KO) and made quite a statement, completely dominating Lima, defeating him by technical knockout.
Uisma landed only two punches and was overwhelmed defensively by Boots, who landed 42.9% of his power punches (Compubox). Ennis won the WBA interim title with the victory and now looks to take control of the 154-pound division. After his victory, he called out all current champions (interim WBC) Vergil Ortiz, (IBF) Bakhram Murtazaliev, (WBO) Xander Zayas and (WBC) Sebastian Fundora.
After the victory, Boots said: “My division is 154.” His ultimate goal is to become the undisputed champion, so he can take on all of them. Eddie Hearn repeated his previous statement regarding Vergil Ortiz at the post-fight press conference: “I’ve said it 10 times, 100 times. We sat in a room with Oscar De La Hoya and Eric Gomez, top DAZN executives, and we negotiated a deal to fight Vergil Ortiz.
“We all agreed, let’s do it. We said the two of them would fight – then in January, February, March, wherever that was. We even said, let’s do it in Dallas. I said, let’s do it in Philadelphia, and we all agreed we’d do it in Las Vegas. We left on the agreed terms. We introduced them to Jaron Ennis. He signed the contract.
“We never heard back from them. This week, Eric Gomez called me and said, ‘Listen, let’s get Lubin out of the way and then we’ll do our best to try to make the fight.’ So we’re giving them the benefit of the doubt. I know Oscar wants to make great fights, but we’re desperate for that fight because we’re desperate for great American boxing fights between two pound-for-pound fighters in top form.
“Not two guys in their 30s, not two guys who are nearing the end of their career, two guys in great shape. So if everyone keeps their word, you’ll see a Boots vs. Ortiz match in early 2026.”
Boots looked extremely impressive in his 154-pound debut. The extra weight allowed him to be so much better. Stronger and a bit faster, without having to make any sacrifices to lose weight. After his dominant performance on Saturday night, it will be captivating to see if Golden Boy actually decides to take Ortiz vs. Boots.
However, Vergil must first overtake Erickson Lubin, who is the fifth best super welterweight according to Ring Magazine. Boots himself is aware of the difficulty of the match and told the press: “It’s a great fight and um, I think it’s definitely a 50-50 fight. You know, you can’t sleep on Lubin. He’s a crafty southpaw. He’s acute and he can punch too.”
“So, you know, it’s going to be a great fight. You know, Vergil’s putting on the pressure and he’s got good jabs, he’s throwing a lot of punches. It’s a great fight for boxing. I think it’s a 50-50 fight. But yeah. Yeah… but I could get the winner or, like I said, the belts. You know, I’m trying to be, you know, undisputed. You know, get those belts and shut up, get up, because you guys are going to be talking too A lot.”
Boots faced criticism for selecting Lima as his opponent for this match, but both he and Hearn stated that the original opponent for this match would be Keith Thurman. The request was made to the PBC, but ultimately they were unable to work out a fight with them. Ennis seems determined to become undisputed, and if the Ortiz fight doesn’t materialize, he will most likely want to fight Bakhram Murtazaliev, who has been itching to get back into the ring.
He hasn’t had a fight since he defeated Tim Tszyu in October 2024. This would seem to be the next logical choice as Fundora recently postponed his scheduled October 25 fight due to a hand injury. Bakhram even contacted X (on Twitter) immediately after Boots urged him to write: “I’m ready.” Whoever Boots faces next, he will be facing an opponent of the caliber everyone has dreamed of.
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