Keith Thurman or Roiman Villa next for Jaron Ennis possible

By Boxing News - 04/11/2023 - Comments

By Craig Daly: Bozy Ennis says his son Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis will face either Keith Thurman or Roiman Villa next.  Boots Ennis is waiting to see what happens between IBF/WBA/WBC welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr and WBO champ Terence Crawford.

Thurman (30-1, 22 KOs) is said to be the backup option for Spence to fight if he can’t put together the Crawford undisputed clash.

If those two don’t fight, Spence must fight Boots or give up his IBF title.  Spence is running out of time to make Crawford fight before he’s forced to make a decision about whether to keep his IBF title and face Ennis or vacate. The way it’s looking, Spence may relinquish his IBF belt rather than fight Boots.

Ennis (30-0, 27 KOs) recently captured the interim IBF welterweight title with a one-sided twelve-round unanimous decision win over Karen Chukhadzhian (21-2, 11 KOs).

The fight Boots Ennis’ 19-fight stoppage streak ended, as Chukhadzhian was able to go the distance in a one-sided fight. The judges scored it 120-108 x 3.

Roiman Villa (26-1, 24 KOs) could be the next opponent for Boots if Spence fights Thurman next. Even if Spence doesn’t fight Thurman, it’s difficult to picture ‘One Time’ agreeing to fight Ennis next.

Thurman hasn’t fought in fourteen months since his win over Mario Barrios in February 2022, and he’s probably not going to want to face the 25-year-old Ennis coming off a long layoff. The 34-year-old Thurman has fought just three times in the last six years, which tells you about his lack of interest in keeping his career going.

“There’s a few people that’s in the hat. It’s [Keith] Thurman. It was [Yordenis] Ugas, but he’s fighting [Mario] Barrios now, but Ugas wanted to fight us. Why are you taking Barrios? We want you. We want all thee top guys. All the ones that are right there where we’re at,” said Bozy Ennis to Hardcoreboxingnews about Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis’s next fight.

“They’re good fights right there,”  said Bozy about Roiman Villa and Thurman as good options for Boots Ennis to face next. “It’s either one of those two.

“If Spence and Crawford don’t fight and Spence don’t fight, we should get the [IBF welterweight] title automatically. It’s a matter of time. Everybody waiting. We’ve been waiting for so long. They’ve held everybody up. Ortiz & Stanionis they held them up. Had everybody waiting.

“Spence and Crawford? I think it’s going to happen because Crawford don’t know where he wants to go. You see with De la Hoya and BLK. That didn’t follow through. Then you got to look at the organizations. They’re putting guys up there that shouldn’t be up there. I’m talking about the rankings.

“I think it’s for the interim,” said Bozy about the Ugas-Barrios fight beinng for the WBC interim welterweight title. “So that means Spence has got Boots because he’s got the three titles. He’s got to pick who he wants to fight, then. He’s [Spence] got to fight one of those three guys,” said Bozy.

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