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Golden Boy promoter Bernard Hopkins guarantees that Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis will fight in 2025. He believes that “greed” and “politics” will not prevent that confrontation from happening next year. Fans are convinced that Ennis dodged Vergil Jr. because he lost his conference after his poor performance in his rematch against Karen Chukhadzhian on November 9.
(Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing)
Is Ennis avoiding Ortiz Jr.?
If this is not fear on Boots’ part for not agreeing to fight Ortiz, he needs to go up to 154 because nothing will happen to him if he stays at 147. He says he will stay at welterweight because he wants Eddie Hearn to set up fights against the champions .
It’s not happening, and He doesn’t seem to see things as they are. Hearn has failed and will continue to fail in setting up the fights Ennis needs against the other champions. Unless Turki Alalshikh helps, Hearn will not produce the money needed to organize the unification fights that Boots is calling for.
Winning those belts won’t make Ennis more popular because fans don’t know who the champions are at 147. The three champions Boots needs to fight to become undisputed are completely unknown, and he can’t gain anything by beating them.
That’s why it would be better to move up to 154 and face Vergil Jr. for his interim WBC title. Of course, that’s if the reason you don’t fight him is because of fear, which could be the real reason.
Losing to Ortiz Jr. would ruin Ennis’ careerr, sabotaging the revenue stream that has been flowing without him being tested against A-level or elite fighters. It may just be a hype job, which is why she looked so poor in her two fights against Karen Chukhadzhian and in her bouts against David Avanesyan and Roiman Villa.
Money and politics had nothing to do with the fight not taking place on February 22. Boots (33-0, 29 KOs) and interim WBC junior middleweight champion Vergil Jr. (22-0, 21 KOs) are not fighting. Ennis, 27, decided he didn’t want to move up to 154 because he wanted to stay at 147 to continue his tireless quest to unify the welterweight division.
Ennis just doesn’t seem to understand. He won’t be able to get the fights he needs at 147 because the champions don’t want to lose their belts without taking in a huge amount of money. Hopkins’ optimistic outlook for an Ennis-Ortiz Jr. fight next year is naive and misses the real issue: money or lack thereof.
“Whether it’s the Boots team or Golden Boy, that fight will be demanded by the fans, and the money and the opportunity will present themselves. They won’t be able to say no,” Bernanrd Hopkins told Fighthpe about a fight between Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis and Vergil Ortiz Jr. “The fight will happen (in 2025).
“The timing was not right for either party. They still have to cross paths before moving on to the next level,” Hopkins said of Ortiz and Ennis. “I guarantee you that the fights that are supposed to happen will happen.”
Hearn’s role and challenges
Some fans believe Boots is obsessed with unifying the 147-pound division. He doesn’t understand that his promoter, Eddie Hearn, can’t organize fights against the other champions. If Ennis’ name was Anthony Joshua, Hearn would have better luck getting the fight, because he would produce the money to get the fights AJ demands.
Boots is no Joshua in terms of popularity, and the unification fights he’s calling for are unlikely to happen in 2025, 2026 or 2027. He’ll get older and have nothing to show for the precious belts he’s chasing.
