ATLANTIC CITY \u2013 Matchroom want to match Jaron \u201cBoots\u201d Ennis with Brian Norman Jnr after Ennis came of age in victory over Eimantas Stanionis.<\/p>\n
The 27 year old added the WBA title to that he already had from the IBF by stopping the previously undefeated Stanionis at the conclusion of six one-sided rounds.<\/p>\n
If Stanionis represented the toughest opponent of his career, at Boardwalk Hall the exciting Ennis delivered his finest performance.<\/p>\n
Ennis has long been regarded as capable of proving among the greatest fighters of the coming era, and Saturday\u2019s victory was perhaps the first time he truly demonstrated that. He performed like he had entered his physical prime, and his promoter therefore wants to deliver to him a further unification fight, and ultimately the undisputed title, before his expected move up in weight.<\/p>\n
Norman Jnr, the WBO champion, is promoted by Top Rank, and after previously failing to match them, Eddie Hearn revealed that those plans will be revived. <\/p>\n
\u201cI spoke to Bob Arum during the week \u2013 he made it clear to me they want to try and make that fight,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s probably close to 10 times the biggest payday of Brian Norman\u2019s career to fight \u2018Boots\u2019 Ennis.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t wanna get in the ring, you may as well retire, because what\u2019s it all about? The kind of payday to fight the best in the sport and prove yourself as a pound-for-pound great. [Philadelphia\u2019s] Wells Fargo, back end of the summer or September \u2013 let\u2019s make it happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cJaron\u2019s already showed us that he\u2019s about legacy and beating champions. The greatest achievement for any fighter is to become undisputed. I don\u2019t know the ins and outs of how Boots felt at the weight, but at the weigh-in he looked extremely comfortable.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of the chat, after the [Karen] Chukhadzhian fight [in November], was, \u2018Is it time to move up?\u2019 I would have felt like we hadn\u2019t done our job if he moved up without unifying the division. I hope that the other champions have ambition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other guys have to show some ambition. It\u2019s just money, money, money, money. What about trying to be No. 1 in the division? With all due respect to Brian Norman, he\u2019s just boxed for about $150,000 on an undercard of Mikaela Mayer v Sandy Ryan. If we go back to the Wells Fargo now to unify again, he will fill the whole place \u2013 18,000, 19,000. So there\u2019s money in the pot. But you gotta show ambition as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrian Norman\u2019s a great fighter. Don\u2019t we want to make great fights for the sport? Watch what [Ennis] does over the next few years. He\u2019s going through all the divisions. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve also got Shakhram Giyasov that\u2019s ordered to fight the winner \u2013 we have to deal with that situation. We\u2019ve got Brian Norman. We\u2019ve got [WBC champion Mario] Barrios. We\u2019ll talk. But I want to see him fight the other champions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ennis-Stanionis took place in Atlantic City, following successive fights in Philadelphia. When Ennis agreed promotional terms with Matchroom, Hearn spoke of his intention of building him as an attraction in his home city.<\/p>\n
Uzbekistan\u2019s Shakhram Giyasov is Ennis\u2019 likeliest next opponent if Norman Jnr or Barrios cannot be tempted, on the grounds that Giyasov was already the mandatory challenger to the WBA title and earlier on Saturday stopped Franco Ocampo of Argentina.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now I\u2019m going to enjoy my win, sit back, talk to the team,\u201d Ennis said. \u201cWhen I fight top-of-the-line guys \u2013 good guys \u2013 that\u2019s what you\u2019re gonna see. You\u2019re gonna see a whole different me. When I\u2019m in the ring, I\u2019m in my happy place. When I got a top guy and I\u2019m fighting for something, it\u2019s a whole different story. Can\u2019t nobody mess with me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just picking it up [when the fight was stopped]. I knew he was going to go, from the second round, from certain things he was doing. I\u2019d been really wanting to pick it up, but my dad [and trainer Derek \u201cBozy\u201d Ennis] was like, \u2018Not yet \u2013 take your time, chill, have fun, stick to the game plan and let it come.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cEverything\u2019s falling in line. It\u2019s perfect timing.<\/p>\n
\u201cY\u2019all don\u2019t know \u2013 I took a pay cut for this fight, too. I accepted less money for this fight. This fight happened because of me. I took less money \u2013 I gave Stanionis more money to fight me. That shows who really wanted the fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d beat anybody in the world. I\u2019m the best fighter in the world. I keep saying \u2013 these fighters can\u2019t mess with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old Stanionis was rescued at the conclusion of the sixth round by his trainer, Marvin Somodio, having by then already been knocked down and suffered swelling by his right eye and an increasingly bloody nose.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the right decision to make instead of taking punishment like that,\u201d said “Bozy” Ennis. \u201cHe was taking a bad beating, man. His face was all busted up and everything. He did the right thing, \u2018cause Boots was gonna knock him out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTIC CITY \u2013 Matchroom want to match Jaron \u201cBoots\u201d Ennis with Brian Norman Jnr after Ennis came of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[12432,1935,12433,12434,4313,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-18793","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boots-ennis","9":"tag-boxing","10":"tag-brian-norman","11":"tag-eddie-hearn","12":"tag-jaron-ennis","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114335479764573038","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}