Golden Boy promoter Bernard Hopkins guarantees that Virgil Ortiz Jr. and Jaron “Boots” Ennis will fight in 2025. He feels that “greed” and “politics” will not prevent that bout from happening next year. Fans are convinced that Ennis evaded Virgil Jr. as he forfeited his conference call after his poor showing in her rematch against Karen Choukedjian on November 9.
(Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing)
Should Enes avoid Ortiz Jr.?
If this isn't fear on Potts' part for not agreeing to fight Ortiz, he needs to move up to 154 because nothing will happen to him staying at 147. He says he will stay at welterweight because he wants to pin Eddie Hearn until the fights against the champions.
This does not happen, and He doesn't seem to see things as they really are. Hearn has failed and will continue to fail in setting up the fights Ennis needs against the other champions. Unless Turki Al-Sheikh helps, Hearn will not be able to produce the funds necessary to begin the unification battles that Potts demands.
Winning these belts won't make Ennis more popular because fans don't know who the 147-year-old champions are. The three champions Boots needs to fight to become undisputed are complete unknowns, and he can't gain anything by defeating them.
That's why it would be better for him to move up to 154 and face Virgil Jr. for the interim WBC title. Of course, that is if the reason he's not fighting is fear, which could be the real reason.
Losing to Ortiz Jr It would ruin Ennis's careerr, sabotaging a revenue stream that was flowing in untested at all against A-level or elite fighters. He may just be a hype act, which is why he looked so poor in his two fights against Karen Choukhodjian and in his matches against David Avanesyan and Roiman Vila.
Money and politics had nothing to do with the fighting that did not happen on February 22. Potts (33-0, 29 KOs) and interim WBC junior middleweight champion Virgil 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 relentless pursuit of unifying the welterweight division.
Ennis doesn't seem to understand. He won't be able to get the fights he needs at 147 because champions don't want to lose their belts without making a huge amount of money. Hopkins' optimistic predictions about a fight between Ennis and Ortiz Jr. next year are naive, and he doesn't see the real problem – money or lack thereof.
“Whether it's Team Boots or Golden Boy, that fight is going to be wanted by the fans, and the money and opportunity is going to present itself. They're not going to be able to say no,” Bernard Hopkins told Fighthpe about the fight between Jaron 'Boots' Ennis and Vergil Ortiz Jr. “The fight will happen (in 2025).
“The timing just wasn't right for each side. They still have to cross paths with each other before they move to the next level,” Hopkins said of Ortiz and Ennis. “I guarantee you the fights that are supposed to happen, they will happen.”
Hearn's role and challenges
Some fans believe Potts is obsessed with unifying the 147-pound division. He doesn't realize that his promoter, Eddie Hearn, can't take fights against other champions. If Ennis's name had been Anthony Joshua, Hearn would have had a better chance of getting the fight, as it would provide the money needed to get the fights AJ is demanding.
Potts is no Joshua in terms of popularity, and the unification fights he is demanding are unlikely to happen in 2025, 2026 or 2027. He will be aging and will have nothing to show for the prized belts he is gunning for.
