Jaron “Boots” Ennis (35-0, 31 KOs) made his super welterweight debut Saturday night against Uisma “Monstro” Lima (14-2, 10 KOs), and he made quite the statement, completely dominating Lima, defeating him by technical knockout.
Uisma only landed two punches and was defensively overwhelmed by Boots’ offense, who landed 42.9 percent of his power punches (Compubox). Ennis captured the WBA interim title with the victory and now seeks to take control of the 154-pound division. After his victory, he called out all the current champions (WBC interim) Vergil Ortiz, (IBF) Bakhram Murtazaliev, (WBO) Xander Zayas, and (WBC) Sebastian Fundora.
After his victory, Boots said, “154 is my division.” His ultimate goal is to become the undisputed champion, so he may very well face all of them. Eddie Hearn reiterated 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, the DAZN top executives, and we negotiated a deal to fight Vergil Ortiz.
“We all agreed, let’s do it. We said they’re both going to fight —then January, February, March, wherever it’s going to be. We even said, let’s do it in Dallas. I said Let’s do it in Philly, and we all agreed Let’s do it in Las Vegas. We went away on those terms that we agreed. We presented them to Jaron Ennis. He signed the contract.
“We’ve never heard back from them. This week, Eric Gomez called me and he said, “Look, let’s get Lubin out of the way, then we will do our bit to try and make the fight.” So, we give them the benefit of the doubt. I know Oscar wants to make great fights, but we are desperate for that fight because we’re desperate to give American boxing super fights of two pound-for-pound guys in their prime.
“Not two guys who are in their late 30s, not two guys that are coming to the end of their career, two guys in their absolute prime. So, if everybody is true to their word, you will see Boots against Ortiz in early 2026.”
Boots looked extremely impressive in his 154-pound debut. The added weight has allowed him to be that much better. Stronger and slightly quicker, not having to sacrifice to make weight. After his dominant performance Saturday night, it will be interesting to see if Golden Boy does indeed decide to match Ortiz against Boots.
Vergil must first, however, get past Erickson Lubin, who is ranked as the fifth-best super welterweight by Ring Magazine. Boots himself recognizes the difficulty in the match and said the following at the presser, “That’s a great fight and um, I think it’s a 50-50 fight for sure. You know, you can’t really sleep on Lubin. He’s a crafty southpaw. He’s sharp, and he can punch as well.
“So, you know, it’s going to be a great fight. You know, Vergil brings the pressure and has got a good jab, throws 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 take the winner, or like I said, the belts. You know, I’m trying to be, you know, undisputed. You know, collect these belts and shut y’all up because y’all talk too much.”
Boots took some criticism in picking Lima as his opponent for this match, but both he and Hearn stated the original opponent for this match was going to be Keith Thurman. A request was made to PBC, but they were ultimately not able to work out a fight with them. Ennis appears determined to become undisputed, and if the Ortiz match does not materialize, he more than likely will seek to fight Bakhram Murtazaliev, who’s been itching to get back in the ring.
He hasn’t had a fight since he defeated Tim Tszyu in October of 2024. This appears to be the next logical choice as Fundora recently postponed his October 25 fight due to a hand injury. Bakhram even took to X (Twitter) immediately after hearing Boots call him out by posting, “I’m ready.” Whomever Boots faces next, it will be against an opponent of the caliber everyone has been clamoring to see.
I’m ready 😉
— Bakhram Murtazaliev (@bakhram95) October 12, 2025