Mega-Fight on the Horizon? Ryan Garcia Signals Intent to Face IBF Welterweight Champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis

Ryan Garcia says he’s interested in fighting Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis. He feels the IBF welterweight champion Ennis gets “hit too much,” and he’d be “100 up for taking the fight now that he’s campaigning at 147.

Garcia wasn’t overly impressed with Ennis’ win over WBA welterweight champion Eimantas Stanionis last Saturday night because he felt he was in the ring against a guy who had no defense.

Ennis Targeted

“Yeah, 100%. Another big fight, another mega-event, that’s what I like to do,” said Ryan Garcia to Fight Hub TV when asked if he’d like to fight IBF welterweight champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis. “I don’t shy away from anybody. I’m willing to do that, too.”

When Ryan isn’t saying that he’s booked up solid with fights through the first half of next year, the earliest he could potentially fight Ennis would be in the second half of 2025, and that depends on a lot of things. The money would have to be there for the fight to make sense. Also, Boots would need to still be campaigning at 147, and there are questions if he’d still be fighting in the weight class if he can’t get the fights he wants or he outgrows it.

“He [Ennis] looked good. I think [Eimantas] Stanionis is a perfect fighter to look good for,” said Garcia about Boots Ennis last fight against WBA welterweight champion Eimantas Stanionis on April 12th at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. “Obviously, he’s here to get hit a lot. Not a lot of defense, but Boots did what he had to do, and he looked great in doing it. I look forward to great competition in the future.”

Garcia is putting it lightly by saying Stanionis was there “to get hit.” He looked like a poor man’s version of Rocky Balboa. No wonder Boots has wanted to stay at 147 for so long. He knows that all the champions are poor, and he can capture them and get superficial praise from gullible fans, who are too slow to realize that it’s been all smoke and mirrors with Ennis’ wins.

Durability Question

“He does,” said Garcia when told that Boots Ennis ‘gets hit with a lot of punches.’ “But he’s a big boy. He’s taking them well so far, but in this sport, it only takes one good one. Why would that fight put you in the pound-for-pound category unless you were there before?”

Boots can’t keep getting hit as much as he does without eventually getting knocked out by someone. It may not happen until he moves up to the 154-lb division, but it will. He’s getting hit flush with shots that are snapping his head sideways. You can only take those kinds of shots for so long.

“If he beat Crawford. Not even Crawford. There’s a little bit more than that,” said Ryan about what Ennis needs to do to get on the pound-for-pound list.

“In order to be the pound-for-pound best fighter, you have to beat some pound-for-pound ranked fighters,” said promoter Oscar De La Hoya. “You have Crawford and obviously Vergil. The guy that Vergil beat, Isail Madrimov. Those are the top guys that are guarding the gate.”

Ennis should at least try to beat those guys to put himself on the pound-for-pound list, but he’s not showing any desire to move up in weight to take on those killers.

“If Boots beats somebody like that, then consider him top 10. But obviously, he’s a great fighter. I like his style. A Ryan-Boots fight is obviously a mega event because of Ryan,” said De La Hoya.

“I’m much more snappier than Stanionis. I’m way more ferocious than that guy,” said Ryan Garcia when asked what happens with Boots if he hits him with the same kinds of shots that Stanionis was. “It could be a lot. You never know in the ring. Some people could take good shots, and some people can’t. We shall see when get in the ring.”