Crolla's Column: Boots is the Real Deal
One of my favourite fighters is in action this weekend when Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis takes on Karen Chukhadzhian for the IBF welterweight title. Before I look at that, I’ve just about recovered from a very busy weekend with two fighters I train.
It was a mad few days in Belfast with Robbie Davies Jr’s opponent Javier Fortuna landing in the country late, then there was an issue with his weight and then with the gloves. Even the fight got a bit messy on the night, but Robbie got the win against a former world champion. It was a must-win fight and that’s what he did. Fortuna was negative, so all in all he got the job done and now rolls on to a bigger opportunity.
There was no rest for the wicked, so after two hours sleep, I was on an early flight out of Belfast to get to Birmingham for another of my fighters, Eoghan Lavin, who really impressed me. He was in against a game lad in Remi Scholer, and other than getting caught with a left hook early on, he was so polished and just about punch perfect. Eoghan went about the job like a top prospect should and got his man out of there in the second round.
I can’t wait for the action in Philadelphia on Saturday night. I’ve been on the Boots Ennis train for a while. He’s in with a tough lad in Chukhadzhian, but I expect Boots to look very good and get the stoppage win late on. I think the Ukrainian will come and have a right go, but I just see Boots having too much class for him, too sharp, and I think he’ll bust him up on the way to a knockout.
Boots is absolutely huge at welterweight, so after this fight, I think it’s just a matter of time before he moves up to super-welter to chase the mega fights against Terence Crawford or Israil Madrimov. He could also look to get in with one of the Charlo brothers.
The main man is Crawford, and I’m not saying Boots beats who I think is the pound-for-pound number one fighter, but the fact that none of the top boxers call out his name says it all. Boots is high-risk.
On the undercard is another very special fighter. I mentioned pound-for-pound fighters and Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez is another who has to be there in everyone’s top ten. He really does just want to fight all the best kids. He’s in against the very hard Mexican Pedro Guevara, but I think we’ll see another very impressive performance and Bam could make a big statement and be the first man to stop Guevara as the fight moves towards the later rounds.
It's a mad world we live in where one week I’m previewing Boots Ennis and Bam Rodriguez and next week we have Jake Paul challenging Mike Tyson! It’s a fight the whole boxing world wants to see – said no boxing fan ever! I still cannot get my head around this. Anyway, there is a serious fight on that bill – Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano go at it again. Now that is a fight, and I look forward to giving a breakdown of that one next week.
