Stanionis: Ennis Sparring ‘Doesn’t Matter’

Eimantas Stanionis says he doesn’t care that Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis recently brought in former two-time welterweight champion Shawn Porter for sparring, and ‘Showtime’ was impressed with Boots’ power during the two rounds.

WBA 147-lb champion Stanionis (15-0, 9 KOs) states that he doubts that he believes this was more about the 37-year-old Porter sparring with IBF champ Boots (33-0, 29 KOs) so that he could talk about it on his podcast on YouTube. Porter has a popular channel with 88,000 subscribers.

Boots’ Last Outing

Ennis vs. Stanionis will be fighting in a unification on April 12th on DAZN at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The fight is seen as a 50-50 one in the view of the boxing public. Boots would have likely been the favorite if they fought last year before his rematch with Karen Chukhadzhian but after that performance, it’s hard to give the edge to him.

Karen boxed Ennis’ head off through the first nine rounds and was even out-punching him. In the championship rounds, Ennis came on to edge it after Karen gassed out. It was still a shockingly bad performance by Boots and far worse than his first fight against Chukhadzhian in January 2023.

Jaron’s game did not improve at all from the first fight, which showed that he’s overrated. Karen came close to beating him, looking like a miniature Artur Beterbiev with how he was out-slugging him.

Throughout the build-up to the fight, Ennis had repeatedly vowed to knockout Karen, saying, “Once I start having my fun [the knockout will come.’ Boots looked miserable in the rematch and was not having any kind of fun. At the post-fight press conference, he hid his eyes behind shades and looked like he wished he was invisible, being grilled with questions from the media.

Stanionis is a better puncher than Chukhadzhian, and he can do a lot of the same slick moves that he showed against Boots.

Stanionis’ Dismissal

“I don’t think he was bringing him in. It was only for Shawn Porter’s podcast or something. It was only a one-time thing,” said Eimantas Stanionis to Fighthype when asked about his thoughts on Shawn Porter praising Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis’ power when they recently sparred.

“I don’t care about any sparring. He can bring a gorilla and spar with. It doesn’t matter. I’m doing my job, and on April 12th, we’re going to see who did the best in training camp and who has the better skills. I’m taking day by day with training and staying disciplined.”