Okay. To know me is to understand that I am not someone prone to hyperbole or fits of “flavor of the month” boxing bandwagon rides. If anything, I’m a bit on the jaded, turd in the punch bowl, wet blanket, no fun, “you’re so bitter” side of things.
So, when I say that Jaron “Boots” Ennis is a real one, then you know that I’m not coming by that assessment frivolously.
As a matter of fact, I’ll do that assessment one better and flat-out declare that the future of the welterweight division, as a whole, looks bright as fuck.
But let’s circle back to “Boots,” specifically.
Ennis, who is still two-and-a-half months shy of his 24th birthday, looked phenomenal in his first real test on Saturday against a main stage-level player in Sergey Lipinets.
The Kazakhstan-born, Russia-representing former junior welterweight champ did what he does and performed up to his abilities, but he was never really in the bout and looked well over his head until the lights got put out in the sixth round. And the guy is good. Maybe not Crawford/Spence/Pacquiao good or even Porter/Garcia good, but still a lower-tier top 10 guy or top 12-14 guy at very worst-- and a full step up in class for Ennis.
I’m not going to bullshit anyone. You guys know boxing. This was a fight that was made to make Ennis look good. This was Boxing Matchmaking 101 for rising stars. Pick a ranked veteran name whose liabilities line up with your guy’s strengths and let the inevitable play out.
But if you know boxing, then you also know that the inevitable isn’t always inevitable. Sometimes your superstar-in-the-making can’t handle the step up. Sometimes he blinks, flinches, and seizes up. Sometimes he wins, but not so impressively. Sometimes he looks like crap. Sometimes he just barely wins. Sometimes he loses. Sometimes the first step up is the first step out.
It’s usually a testament to a young fighter’s “realness” when he plows through the entry-level main-stagers the same way he did against the journeymen, gatekeepers, and club fighters. Ennis did just that. Lipinets showed him a few new wrinkles, a few different looks, and it just didn’t matter. Ennis, in practice, was just as good as Ennis, in theory. That’s a big deal.
It’s hard not to imagine the kid doing that against anyone he may meet, right up until he gets to the very top. That’s fucking exciting. That’s good for boxing. And it’s too bad that the only way some fans will recognize the rising powerhouse dynamo in their presence and give him any “warrior” cred is if he suddenly changed his hometown from Philadelphia to somewhere in the Eastern Bloc and changed his name from Jaron Ennis to Jaronkovich Ennivovich.
But “Boots” is for real and his rise is going to be a fun one.
Also, “for real” is fellow 23-year-old powerhouse dynamo,Vergil Ortiz Jr., who is a different, but maybe equal fighter.
Ortiz will also be tearing through the entry-level main-stagers until he gets to the very top. We’re going to be hearing a lot of Ennis-Ortiz talk and debate for the next few years and, hopefully, by the time a fight between the two is ready to happen, the business somehow figures out a way to get the biggest fights made.
But the future of 147 is not just Ennis and Ortiz.
This Saturday, we also saw 24-year-old Conor Benn, who is, right now, best known for being Nigel Benn’s son, but who might eventually earn his own legacy as a pretty decent scrapper. The “Junior Destroyer” (I added the “Junior” part) looked spectacular in dealing with his own “next-level” fight against journeyman Samuel Vargas, destroying the tough B-side in 80 seconds.
Now, Vargas is Vargas...but, still, it was a step up in class for Benn and an undeniably successful step up.
Also in action on Saturday was 26-year-old Lithuanian welterweight prospect, Eimantas Stanionis, who handled veteran Thomas Dulorme pretty solidly in a “next step up in class” bout. Stanionis looks to be fairly limited when it comes to how high he can go, but he seems sturdy and solid enough to be a lower-tier top 10 guy.
There are other young guys further down the ranks that might be “real ones.” Throw in the rising imports from 140-- Josh Taylor, Regis Prograis, Jose Ramirez-- along with guys like Jamal James and Rashidi Ellis, who are waiting on their main stage breakthrough fights, and there’s a lot of untapped fun and intrigue below the Crawford/Spence/Pacquiao/Porter/Ugas/Garcia upper tier.
Saturday was just the beginning of a long, beautifully violent new chapter in welterweight history.
Got something for Magno? Send it here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com