Boots Ennis Calls Vergil Ortiz Fight Rumors ‘Fake News’
IBF welterweight champion Jaron “Boots” Ennis (33-0, 29 KO’s) has been under intense fire for seemingly ducking interim WBC 154-pound champion Vergil Ortiz Jr. (22-0, 21 KO’s). After a truncated period of silence, Ennis spoke with YSM Sports Media to voice his side of the story. According to Boots, he is in no way ducking Ortiz Jr., who he could have faced on February 22 on a Riyadh Season telecast. Instead however, Ennis has opted to remain at welterweight to collect more titles.
RELATED: Eddie Hearn On Ennis vs Ortiz: “We’re Ready To Go February 22”
HOLLOW TITLES
Since his name began ringing with regularity, Ennis has been painted as being among boxing’s cream of the crop. Unfortunately, the Philly native does not have a marquee win to bolster this characterization. Even worse, despite being a title holder, Ennis scalped no champion to claim his trophy. This is because Ennis was awarded the belt only after it was stripped from Terence Crawford. Bearing this in mind, Boots is determined to capture a 147-pound title the traditional way.
“There was a lot of false information going around, fake news. I never agreed to fight Vergil Ortiz on February 22 and when Eddie [Hearn] called on the deadline, I was undecided on whether I was going to stay at 147 or move to 154. I was undecided because as everyone know, I want to unify, be lineal or at least be undisputed at 147, or get my hands on one of those titles. Everybody knows because everyone was calling me the email champion. So with that being said, I never was able to fight a world champion or take a world title from someone, I was given the belt. That was out of my hands. I couldn’t say yes or no.”
Without question, his feet will be held to the fire when he selects his next opponent. As for his dreams of unification, he and his team could have faced WBO 147-pound champion Brian Norman Jr. In his defense though, Norman Jr. walked away from a career high payday when snubbing the Ennis bout. On top of this, Norman Jr. is also an “email champion”, having fought Giovanni Santillian for the vacant strap to become the interim champion. He was later elevated to full champion status.
PIPER MUST BE PAID
The other two champions, Mario Barrios (WBC) and Eimantas Stanionis (WBA), have shown little desire to dance. So unless he circles back for Norman Jr., or Barrios and Stanionis change their tune, where is this unification coming from? Nevertheless, both Boots and his Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn have promised a unification bout next. If they deliver, then this scribe can not label Ennis a duck.
On the other hand, if Boots sidesteps Ortiz after fumbling Norman Jr. and he fights anyone other than a welterweight champion, then Ennis and crew will have a whole new batch of tough questions to answer! So let’s stay tuned and see what the next chapter has in store!
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