Ennis vs. Stanionis Welterweight Unification Eyed for April 12th in Atlantic City

IBF welterweight champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) is reportedly finalizing a unification fight against WBA belt-holder Eimantas Stanionis (15-1, 9 KOs) in a Matchroom-promoted show on DAZN for April 12th at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The Ring reports that Ennis vs. Stanionis is close to being finalized. However, staging the fight at Atlantic City is an odd location, as there are no longer many boxing events there nowadays. It would make more sense for the fight to take place in Boots’ hometown of Philadelphia, but given how bad he looked in his last fight against Karen Chukhadzhian, maybe it’s better that it’s in Atlantic City. 

Ennis’ Quest for Undisputed

Boots has taken a lot of flak from fans for rejecting a fight against Vergil Ortiz Jr. at 154 in favor of staying at 147 to continue working on his goal of becoming the undisputed champion at welterweight.

Ennis, 27, has the right promoter, Eddie Hearn, to accomplish his dream, but it still seems like a waste. The three champions that Jaron needs to beat, Stanionis, Mario Barrios, and Brian Norman Jr., aren’t household names in the U.S.

Terence Crawford’s popularity soared when he defeated Errol Spence to become the undisputed welterweight champion in 2023, but he was a star. Boots won’t have that because the three champions that he would be fighting are entirely unknown to the casual fans.

“It’s about time Boots gets in the ring with somebody,” said Tim Bradley to the State of Boxing, scolding Jaron Ennis for coasting through his entire nine-year professional career without fighting an A-level fighter. “He had plenty of opportunities to get in the ring with many guys, Vergil Ortiz at that, but he chose not to.”

Boots Under Fire

Jaron Ennis is coming off a poor performance in his rematch against his IBF mandatory Karen Chukhadzhian on November 9th at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

Karen made Ennis look really bad in that fight, outboxing him and hitting him with potshots all night; if not for Chukhadzhian gassing in the championship rounds, Ennis would have lost. If Hearn had swung a deal with WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr. for a unification fight, Boots could have temporarily avoided the Karen rematch. He’d still have had to fight, but it could have put it off and avoided having his stock plummet to an all-time low.

On top of all of that, Ennis made things worse for himself by rejecting a career-high payday to challenge Vergil Ortiz Jr. for his WBC interim junior middleweight title on the Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol 2 card on February 22nd in Riyadh.

That event will be shown on DAZN PPV, and it would have been a perfect vehicle for Ennis to increase his star power with just one fight. Beating Vergil Jr. would have done far more to turn Ennis into a global superstar than for him to become an undisputed champion at 147 by beating three little-known champions. Is it fear on Ennis’ part or a lack of ambition that caused him to turn down the fight against Vergil Ortiz Jr?

I can see what promoter Eddie Hearn is up against trying to turn Jaron Ennis into a star. Boots is making it hard to turn him into a star with his ham-handed moves.