Jaron 'Boots' Ennis needs to make sure he doesn't get left out of the ring during his negotiations for a huge fight against Teofimo Lopez in early 2025. Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) felt blindsided about being offered a fight against Vergil Ortiz Jr. on February 22 .
The “out of the loop” excuse.
This time, IBF welterweight champion Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) should be involved because a bout against Teofimo (21-1, 13 KOs) will boost his slowly progressing career.
Fans don't actually believe Potts' excuse for choosing not to fight Virgil, seeing it as a case of an old fear. He was humiliated by his most recent opponent, Karen Choukhodjian, on November 9th, and Ortiz Jr. could do much worse to him. Ennis's excuse for being kept out of the loop with his team has fallen flat with fans, who see him as lacking courage after what happened to him against Karen.
Lopez is showing that he's not afraid to take on the challenge of moving up to 147. It seems bad that Ennis wasn't willing to do the same by moving up to 154 in one fight to challenge Virgil Jr. for the interim WBC title over Saadeh Turki. The Sheikh's concert in Riyadh on February 22.
Teofimo began his career at lightweight and moved up to 140 in 2022. Teofi has only had five fights at light welterweight, and now he jumps up to 147 to challenge Potts. This is impressive.
The downside to Ennis taking this fight against Lopez is that if he gets knocked out or struggles to win, his stock will drop even more than it does now after his decision to sit out the Virgil Jr. contest. It will be difficult to see Potts come back from a loss or poor performance against Teofimo and become a popular guy.
Prove the doubters wrong
Lance Pugmire reports that Teofimo's promoter, Bob Arum, is negotiating with Matchroom president Eddie Hearn to schedule the fight in a joint DAZN/ESPN PPV event early next year. Now that Terence Crawford has made weight, this is the best fight he could have for Potts at 147 years old.
We will have to wait and see if this fight starts because it still needs to be negotiated. Teofimo may choose to play on the first side with Ennis, which will waste any chances in the match. Potts sees himself as the king of the 147-pound division, which he is right now in terms of talent. Connor Penn, Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia are more popular than Ennis because they have personalities.
Ennis wants to be a star, but he can only do that if he negotiates the Teofimo fight and faces Haney, Ryan and Ben.
