Rising contender Jaron Ennis: 'I’m coming to take over the welterweight division'

Plus plenty of notes: Shields loses MMA fight; HOF weekend details; Wood-Conlan update; world title fight being added to Lopez-Kambosos card; Quick hits

Oct 28, 2021

Welterweight phenom Jaron “Boots” Ennis may very well be the next pound-for-pound star in boxing.

He is highly thought of and many picked him as the 2020 prospect of the year after knockouts of step-up opponents Juan Carlos Abreu and Bakhityar Eyubov. His third fight in 2020 ended in a disappointing first-round no decision after Chris van Heerden suffered a cut from an accidental head butt and was unable to continue.

But Ennis, 24, who has already been a pro for five years, impressed mightily in his 2021 debut in April when he dominated and pummeled former junior welterweight world titlist Sergey Lipinets in an enormous step up in competition. Ennis dropped Lipinets twice en route to a highlight-reel sixth-round knockout.

Now, Ennis is back for his second bout this year to take on another well-respected veteran in former junior welterweight and welterweight title challenger Thomas Dulorme in the co-feature of a Showtime-televised tripleheader on Saturday (10 p.m. ET) at the Michelob ULTRA Arena at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

Ennis is direct in his assessment of the fight against underdog Dulorme, who has lost two fights in row, both by competitive decision, to unbeaten rising contender Eimantas Stanionis in April and Jamal James for a vacant secondary title in August 2020. Dulorme (25-5-1, 16 KOs), 31, of Puerto Rico, has also lost to Terence Crawford and Yordenis Ugas, both reigning welterweight titleholders, and has a draw with former titlist Jessie Vargas.

“Dulorme is a good fighter and I don’t take anything away from him,” Ennis said. “He’s fought a lot of great guys, world champions, but I’m on a different level right now. I’m coming to take over the welterweight division and he’s in my way. He’s got to go. I’m coming for all the belts.”

Ennis (27-0, 25 KOs), of Philadelphia, has steadily risen the various sanctioning body rankings and it’s probably only a matter of time until he gains a mandatory position in one of them as long as he keeps winning.

He also keep working, pushed by father and trainer Bozy Ennis.

“My dad has me working on some new things to get better,” Ennis said. “We’re working on having me be more relaxed in there and just staying sharp and alert, using my jab and going to the body a lot more. I never look for the knockout. I just go in there and do what I’m supposed to do and I let the knockout come to me, which it usually does.”

Ennis has mostly fought on the East Coast and is excited about having his first professional fight in Las Vegas, where he won a gold medal at the 2015 National Golden Gloves.

“That’s a really fun memory, especially because I won the whole tournament,” Ennis said. “I love Vegas. It’s the home of boxing, but honestly, I have so many fans from Philly coming out to this fight that it’s going to feel like I’m fighting at home. I would love to keep fighting in Vegas, bring my Philly people out, and make it like a second home.

“It’s wonderful that I’m getting more and more recognition, but that’s not what I do this for. I’m just ready to take over the entire division. I promise this is just the start for me.”

In the main event, secondary welterweight titlist James (27-1, 12 KOs), 33, of Minneapolis, will defend against mandatory challenger Radzhab Butaev (13-0, 10 KOs), 27, a Brooklyn, New York-based Russia native. Rising lightweight contender Michel Rivera (21-0, 14 KOs), 23, a Dominican Republic native fighting out of Miami, will face Matias Romero (24-1, 8 KOs), 25, of Argentina, in the 10-round opener.

Shields loses MMA bout

Three-division boxing world champion Claressa Shields, who is splitting her time between boxing and MMA, lost a split decision to Abigail Montes in an MMA lightweight bout (155 pounds) on the PFL’s ESPN2-televised card on Wednesday night at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida.

Two judges scored it 29-28 for Montes, who controlled the fight when they were on the ground, and one had it 29-28 for Shields, whose best moments came when they were on their feet.

Montes (3-0, 1 KO), 21, of Mexico, relied heavily on her grappling to keep Shields on the ground for long stretches and closed out the third round with an extend pounding of Shields while on top of her.

Shields (1-1, 1 KO), 26, of Flint, Michigan, made her MMA debut on June 10 with a third-round knockout of Brittney Elkin in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and is scheduled to have her next boxing match on Dec. 11 in Birmingham, England, where she will defend her unified junior middleweight championship.

Montes took her to the ground for a long stretch in the second round but Shields eventually broke away, got to her feet and landed punches. Shields began the third round in similar fashion before Montes took her down. Shields again broke free and got to her feet, but could not stay there for long. Montes took her down again, mounted her and unloaded numerous punches until the final bell.

The loss was Shields’ first in combat sports since an amateur boxing defeat to Savanna Marshall in 2012. Shields went 77-1 as an amateur and won two Olympic gold medals. She is 11-0 with two knockouts as a pro boxer. Her Dec. 11 fight will be on the same card with Marshall. If they both win they will meet in a pro rematch early in 2022.

TalkSport Fight Night

I joined my pals Gareth Davies and Adam Catterall on their “Fight Night” boxing show on TalkSport radio in the United Kingdom to discuss various boxing issues. We had a spirited discussion about heavyweight Dillian Whyte’s withdrawal from his fight with Otto Wallin that was scheduled for Saturday; where Deontay Wilder goes following his knockout loss to Tyson Fury in their great battle earlier this month; and Anthony Joshua’s visit to the United States to talk to potential new trainers. You can listen the whole show here, which also includes an interview with Whyte, but the section I am on runs from about 15 minutes in to 30 minutes: https://play.acast.com/s/fight-night/dillianwhyte-danrafael-dmitrysalita-frankwarren-lyndonarthur-jackcatterall-claressashields

Hall of Fame weekend

Tickets for the International Boxing Hall of Fame’s next induction weekend, which will take place June 9-12 in Canastota, New York, go on sale on Nov. 1.

It will be the biggest, most star-studded induction weekend in Hall of Fame history as the classes of 2020, 2021 and 2022 will all be inducted following the cancellation of the HOF weekends in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The weekend will culminate with the official induction ceremonies on June 12 at 2 p.m. ET at the museum grounds. Beginning with the class of 2020, each group will be called to the induction stage to receive their gold Hall of Fame rings and deliver acceptance remarks. At the end of the ceremony, all three classes will pose for what will be a historic group photo.

Being inducted from the class of 2020 are boxers Bernard Hopkins, Juan Manuel Marquez, “Sugar” Shane Mosley, Frank Erne, Paddy Ryan, Barbara Buttrick, Christy Martin and Lucia Rijker; promoters Lou DiBella, Kathy Duva and Dan Goossen and journalists Bernard Fernandez and Thomas Hauser.

The class of 2021 includes boxers Wladimir Klitschko, Floyd Mayweather, Andre Ward, Laila Ali, Ann Wolfe, Marian Trimiar, Jackie Tonawanda and Davey Moore; cut man Freddie Brown, physician Dr. Margaret Goodman, trainer/manager Jackie McCoy, journalist George Kimball and television executive Jay Larkin.

Voting for the class of 2022 is underway with results to be announced in December.

Many of the weekend events are free and do not require a ticket, such as ringside lectures each day on the museum grounds and the Parade of Champions on Sunday prior to the induction ceremony.

Ticketed events include the Friday night fight night and Saturday night’s Banquet of Champions, both at Turning Stone Resort Casino in nearby Verona, New York; the annual 5k race/fun run; boxing autograph, card and memorabilia show; and special tent seating at the induction ceremony.

For more information on induction weekend call 315-697-7095 or visit the ibhof.com.

Wood-Conlan update

As expected, the WBA has scheduled a purse bid on Monday for the fight between secondary featherweight titlist Leigh Wood (25-2, 15 KOs), of England, and mandatory challenger Michael Conlan (16-0, 8 KOs), of Northern Ireland, who was one of the 11 interim titleholders the WBA stripped recently in an effort to reduce the number of belts it sanctions. In stripping Conlan, he was made Wood’s mandatory challenger.

When Wood promoter Matchroom Boxing and Conlan promoter Top Rank could not come to an agreement, even after they asked for and were granted an extension from the original purse bid date of Oct. 11, Top Rank asked for the WBA to schedule the purse bid.

They could still make a deal between now and the auction, but if the purse bid takes place the minimum bid is $120,000.

Wood would get 55 percent of the winning offer and Conlan would receive 45 percent. The WBA also reiterated that the winner will be ordered to face “super” titleholder Leo Santa Cruz (37-2-1, 19 KOs), although it seems unlikely that Santa Cruz, who has not defended the title, or even fought in the weigh class, for more than 3½ years, will return to the weight class.

Quick hits

Matchroom Boxing is in the process of finalizing a fight between South African southpaw Azinga Fuzile (15-1, 9 KOs) and Japan’s Kenichi Ogawa (25-1-1, 18 KOs) for the vacant IBF junior lightweight title to take place as the co-feature of the Teofimo Lopez-George Kambosos Jr. lightweight championship fight on Nov. 27 (DAZN) at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York, a source with knowledge of the plans told Fight Freaks Unite. The title has been vacant since February, when Joseph Diaz Jr. was overweight for a title defense against Russia’s Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov and was stripped the day before they fought to a draw. Rakhimov was scheduled to face Ogawa for the vacant title on Aug. 20 on a D4G Promotions card in Dubai, but the bout was canceled with no reason given.

WBC strawweight titlist Panya Pradabsri (36-1, 23 KOs), 30, of Thailand, is scheduled to make his first defense against countryman Danai Ngiabphukhiaw (9-2, 5 KOs), 21, on Nov. 2 in Nakhon Sawan, Thailand. Pradabsri won the belt from long-reigning titlist Wanheng Menayothin, who was 54-0 going into the bout and had made 12 successful defenses, on Nov. 27, 2020. Ngiabphukhiaw, who has been fighting in scheduled eight-rounders, will be in his first 12-round bout in a major step up in competition.

ESPN+ will have live coverage of the MTK Global card on Friday from London’s York Hall beginning at 2 p.m. ET. Headlining is British junior lightweight contender Archie Sharp (20-0, 9 KOs) against Alexis Boureima Kabore (28-4, 7 KOs), of Burkina Faso, in a 10-rounder. In the 10-round co-feature, Kazakhstan’s Tursynbay Kulakhmet (4-0, 3 KOs) will face the Domincan Republic’s Juan Carlos Abreu (23-6-1, 21 KOs). Four other bouts are also slated to stream.

Show and tell

When Mike Tyson traveled to Tokyo to defend the undisputed heavyweight title against Buster Douglas it was supposed to be a quick and easy payday before the fight so many had looked forward to for years — Tyson against former undisputed cruiserweight champion and No. 1 heavyweight contender Evander Holyfield. Of course, it didn’t quite work out that way as Douglas shocked the world and knocked out Tyson in the 10th round in the biggest upset in boxing history. That meant Douglas would be required to make his first defense against Holyfield, the mandatory challenger. Douglas had been a focused and trim 231½ pounds against Tyson but he did a lot of celebrating of his historic win and was in no shape mentally or physically for Holyfield, coming in at a jiggly 246 pounds. He was no match for Holyfield, who put him away with ease in the third round to win the undisputed championship at the Mirage in Las Vegas. That significant fight was on Oct. 25, 1990 — 31 years ago this past Monday. Here is the pay-per-poster from the fight in my collection.

Ennis photo: Amanda Westcott/Showtime; Shields-Montes photo: PFL

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