On the Clock: Jaron Ennis Must Face Mandatory Challenger Shakhram Giyasov Following WBA Super Title Elevation

The WBA Committee voted to elevate Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis (34-0, 30 KOs) to welterweight Super Champion today and mandated that he defend against his mandatory Shakhram Giyasov (17-0, 10 KOs).

120-Day Deadline

Ennis is on the clock, needing to defend against Giyasov within 120 days from when he won the WBA title against Eimantas Stanionis on April 12th. Giyasov is a more powerful version of Karen Chukhadzhian, a fighter who gave ‘Boots’ Ennis a difficult time on November 9th last year. Giyasov has skills, power, and he can move. On paper, he’s a nightmare for the easy-to-hit Boots.

Ennis can’t avoid defending against Giyasov, because he already stepped aside to allow him to fight Stanionis in a unification clash. Of course, Boots’ promoter, Eddie Hearn, may look for a way out for him to circumvent his mandated title defense.

Fox in the Henhouse?

If the old fox Hearn can set up a unification fight for Ennis with WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman or WBC champ Mario Barrios, he can weasel out of this risky title defense against the talented  2016 Olympic Silver medalist Giyasov.

Hearn would have to open up his piggy bank and give Norman and Barrios a big offer for them to agree to fight Ennis. He’s not going to do that because it would require investment in Ennis.

Those champions aren’t going to agree to fight Ennis for the money that Hearn is offering because their chances of winning wouldn’t be great. I don’t see either of those guys taking the fight with Ennis.

If Turki Alalshikh chose to help Hearn out by offering Barrios or Norman a big purse to fight Ennis, the fight can happen, and he can swerve Giyasov.  That’s what Hearn will likely be hoping for because if he lets Ennis fight Giyasov, he might lose or look just as bad as he did in his rematch with Karen. Boots’ stock dropped from that fight.

Luckily for him, he had a weak champion, Stanionis, holding the WBA. That was the ideal opponent for Ennis to look like 24k gold against a flawed belt-holder.

“Ennis is now mandated to defend his Super Championship against Shakhram Giyasov — the division’s official mandatory challenger… Per WBA rules, Ennis must face Giyasov within 120 days of his April 12 victory over Stanionis. The winner of Ennis vs. Giyasov will be required to face the winner of [Ryan] Garcia vs. [Rolando ‘Rolly’] Romero,” the WBA Committee ruled today.