By Allan Fox: Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis weighed in a slim-looking 145.5 pounds on Friday for the title defense of his IBF interim welterweight belt against Roiman Villa this Saturday night at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Villa (26-1, 24 KOs) weighed 146.5 lbs.
Villa looked bigger & stronger than Ennis during the face-off at the weigh-in, giving one got the Marcos Maidana vibes for his fight with Adrien Broner.
What we saw in Villa’s last fight is he’s got a chin, and he’s fearless with the way he comes forward. Ennis better be ready to take some big shots on Saturday from Villa because I don’t think this guy is playing around.
He knows that a win over Ennis opens the door for big money fights potentially against Errol Spence Jr and Terence Crawford.
Boot, 26, is the favorite to win, but stranger things have happened. We saw how Villa pulled off an upset in his last fight against former blue chip amateur prospect Rashidi Ellis last January, and that’s a guy with excellent skills.
Ennis (30-0, 27 KOs) will put his unbeaten record and his interim IBF 147-lb title on the line in this important fight against Villa. With the way that boxing fans are giving Villa no chance in this fight, Ennis is in a position where he could have a letdown.
A lot of people forget how bad Boots looked in his last fight against Karen Chukhadzhian, and they’re assuming that this is going to be an easy night’s work for him against the hard-hitting Villa.
Weights for Saturday on Showtime
Jaron Ennis – 145.5 vs. Roiman Villa 146.5
Yoelvis Gómez 159 vs. Marquis Taylor 158
Edwin De Los Santos 133 vs. Joseph Adorno 135
“I like Boots. I’m not gonna say I wasn’t pleased with his last performance,” said Gary Russell Jr to MillCity Boxing about Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis.
“I actually do like Boots. I think he’s a good fighter. I didn’t like his last performance [against Karen Chukhadzhian]. I do know that he’s still maturing, and he’s still growing. He’s still growing as a fighter, and I understand that,” said Russell.
Almost no one liked Ennis effort against Karen Chukhadzhian last January because he showed no ring IQ for a fighter that is being hyped as much as he is.
Can Boots makee improvements in that area enough to beat Spence or Crawford? It’s doubtful. The way Boots looked, Teofimo Lopez would outbox him if he moved up to 147.
“I’m a hard critic. I’m hard on myself, so I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt because I seen his last fight, and I seen him perform better than his last fight,” said Russell about Boots.
“Styles does make fights, but I’ve definitely seen him perform better than his last fight. I’m glad he got the win, but I wasn’t completely pleased with his performance. If I was his dad or if that was my dad and that was my fight, he would be like, ‘Man, you got to win, but you look like some s**t.’
“He would hit me with one of them. An ugly win is better than a pretty loss. Now I’m not saying that it was an ugly win because he definitely clearly won the fight, but I expect guys that are on a certain level to display their skill set. If I’m on a different level, you should see that I’m on a different level.
“If you’re on a level, show that you’re on another level. Don’t come down to someone else’s level, and I feel like in his last fight, I don’t know what was going on, but I I seen slight immaturities in his game. But I do know that he’s still mature, and I still like him in that division. Though. I definitely still like him in that division.
“He’s young, he’s hungry, and he going to bring it. He needs to keep his chin down, though. He got to stop punching with his head in the air,” said Russell Jr. about Boots Ennis.
