I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel after Jaron “Boots” Ennis did what he was overwhelmingly favored to do Saturday night. Hurray? I guess.
I mean, Boots-David Avanesyan was never meant to be a “fight.” It was a “feel good” showcase for the 27-year-old Ennis. It was a way to kick off his alliance with Eddie Hearn/Matchroom Boxing/DAZN with a highlight reel blast in front of an energized hometown crowd at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia and establish the narrative that this guy is boxing’s next big thing. Or, at the very least, it was intended to make Ennis feel like he’s being put on the road to becoming boxing’s next big thing.
Ennis may very well be the next big thing on the American scene (he certainly has the ability to be a next-level star), but this RTD 5 drubbing of Avanesyan Saturday night did nothing to prove or disprove that.
The promotion managed to fill two-thirds of a 21,000 seat arena, which is actually pretty good in this day and age. It also brought big-time boxing back to Philadelphia, something which worked like Viagra to stimulate the loins of an old, lazy boxing media and spur them on to extensive coverage of the event.
But, for the regular boxing fan, this fight meant nothing. Hell, it even meant next to nothing to most of the hardcore “Boots” Ennis fans who are convinced that the man is Tommy Hearns, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Floyd Mayweather all rolled into one. It was just a -1400 favorite beating the stuffing out of a guy nobody, anywhere thought would win.
The media rolled out the usual adjectives when it comes to guys like Avanesyan. He was “tough…game…he showed great courage…he was a warrior.” Much was made of the handful of punches he landed on Ennis, sprinkled throughout the five-round fight. But Ennis was hit because he had no reason to fear what was coming back at him as he showcased his offensive prowess. This was not “Boots” being vulnerable, it was “Boots” being a guy who knew he could make every mistake in the world and still walk away the easy winner.
Avanesyan was somewhat of a late replacement for original B-side Cody Crowley. But, again, this Ennis fight, on this date, was always meant to be a showcase. Crowley may be four years younger than Avanesyan and considerably fresher, but he was meant to be a fall guy just the same.
Sorry, not sorry, for raining on some parades this Monday.
So, now that we got the signing bonus fight out of the way, where does “Boots” go from here?
“Nowhere” seems to be the most obvious answer.
As I wrote last week, at my other gig as Managing Editor of Boxingnews.co:
“Fighting in front of 10 or 15K screaming hometown fans will make for an energizing Matchroom debut on DAZN. But then what? Next-level opposition with name value is a “must” if a fighter wants to be a real star. There’s none of that to be found at welterweight right now, where the biggest active names are currently Mario Barrios and Eimantis Stanionis. Teofimo Lopez and Devin Haney are supposedly headed up to 147, but they won’t be looking Boots’ way for the same reason Crawford didn’t and Spence wouldn’t.
Even a move up to junior middleweight won’t guarantee big fights, with Crawford up there and guys like Vergil Ortiz Jr., Tim Tszyu, and Sebastian Fundora also there, moving in all different directions with separate promotional ties.
If Boots’ business plan is to take hefty DAZN paychecks for fighting “next best availables,” like he did at Showtime (and is doing against Avanesyan this Saturday, let’s be real), then, he’ll be satisfied with his career path over the next few years.
He clearly aspires to more, though.
The fight he probably needs the most at 147-154 is versus Terence Crawford (who also beat the stuffing out of Avanesyan back in 2022), but Crawford has ranged from indifferent to belligerently dismissive when it comes to facing Ennis. And, to be fair, Ennis has not seemed all that enthusiastic about facing Crawford, even when “calling him out.”
So, how do you become a next-level star when there are no stars to beat in his weight range? As I put it in my Boxingnews.com piece– this might be a case of Ennis tying to “become a star in a starless sky.”
That’s going to be the real challenge for Eddie Hearn and Matchroom. Filling hometown arenas and finding eye-pleasing fall guy opposition is easy. Building a star without piggyback rides to stardom is going to be tough.
Got something for Magno? Send it here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com
