Philly's Jaron 'Boots' Ennis To Fight Vergil Ortiz Jr.

The following is an excerpt from Large's interview with Jaron 'Boots' Ennis, following his recent dominant performance in Philly...

"Hey, everybody. Welcome back. It's the Barstool boxing show starring me. I'm the only person that matters on this one today. Do not pay attention to the gentleman who is 35 and oh, and he's sitting right next to me! 

He's about to tear through the super welterweight division like an absolute box of light bulbs. It's Philly's own Jaron 'Boots' Ennis (34-0, 30-knockouts) and for people who don't know Boots ...

Photo: Mariana Lima/@monkeywings 

Large

" …shame on you, because he is the face of boxing. For the next 20 years or so, I was turned on to boots probably about five years ago, from Gillie, while I was doing stuff with the Million Dollars Worth of Game guys. And they know that I'm a big boxing head.

I was doing something with Canelo at the time, and I think Gillie was like, "Canelo is straight cheeks, you gotta watch this guy Boots." - and I was like, "oh, I should." 

So, I started and I'm fucking so glad that I did. I've done some stuff with him down in Philly, first time he's in NY HQ. Welcome to New York, Boots.

Large:

How you doing, brother?

Boots:

I'm doing great. I appreciate you having me.

Large:

You're doing better than great, because you put on a clinic a couple of weeks ago. That first round knockout, for people who've never seen a boots fight, shame on you again. But, this is one of those guys who fights from either side of the plate, comes in, and absolutely destroys Uisma Lima - in under two minutes, doing that 'switch-hitter' shit.

Large

" …Which drives me absolutely crazy. I'm a natural southpaw. I was doing some ham and shit in college, so I kind of just have this, where if I go around and I start to fight Orthodox, but I look like a guy who just got out of a hospital. How does that come so easy for you, when guys spend their whole lives trying to just get to a point where their power hand becomes their style for the rest of their career?

Boots

" …That's something my dad, you know, taught me. I started southpaw, and then my dad, once I got good on southpaw, my dad assured me, told me how to use the right hand side, which is orthodox. And ever since then, I just been fighting both sides, and, you know, I'm very fluent in both.

Everything is equally the same, you know, defense be power. You know, sometimes when I'm in the ring, I don't even know when I switch." 

Large

" …I am always curious to see whether or not fighters carry their power when they go up in weight classes. And then to see you at 154, come out and absolutely destroy Lima. It just puts to rest all the questions on whether or not you're going to be devastating at 154.

Was it a concern of yours getting in there? Saying, no matter what I'm looking good at sparring, it's not until I get in there under the big lights at this weight limit, will I know whether or not, I'm truly boots at this?" 

Photo: Mariana Lima/@monkeywings 

Next up for Boots is a fight in 2026 with Vergil Ortiz Jr.