Jaron Ennis Says Boxing Will Appreciate Him After Retirement

The unified junior middleweight champion believes every victory is dismissed and says critics continue to move the standard after each performance

Jaron Ennis believes boxing will not fully appreciate his career until he retires. The unified junior middleweight champion says every dominant performance is followed by new criticism rather than recognition, regardless of how he wins.

“I just take it as a compliment at this point because that shows the world understand how great I am, and I just got to keep living up to their standard, which I’m going to keep doing,” said Jaron Ennis to the Pivot podcast. “I feel like they’re not going to appreciate me until I retire.

“I always say I feel like my style different from everybody. I really do whatever I want. Every fight I give you something different. My last fight I gave you some dog fight. I could have made it easy and box and move. The fight before that I got a first-round knockout. The fight before that I was boxing and moving and slipping. I give you whatever you want.

“I feel like the world knows that. They downplay anybody that I fight. I can go knock out the Hulk, and they be like, ‘You supposed to do that.’ It’s crazy. It don’t matter what I do. They just try to downplay anything I do. But at the end of the day, I love it. It drives me and makes me get better each and every day. I’m going to continue to keep growing. Like I said, they’re not going to appreciate me until I retire.”

‘Boots’ Ennis’ comments reflect a frustration that has followed him throughout much of his career. Despite winning world titles in two weight classes and stopping many of his opponents in impressive fashion, he believes the conversation quickly shifts from his performance to questioning the quality of the opposition.

The Philadelphia native recently defeated WBA and WBO 154-lb champion Xander Zayas and has made no secret of his ambition to become the undisputed champion before moving up to chase more titles. Yet Ennis feels those achievements continue to be minimized, no matter how dominant he looks inside the ring.