In April of this year the undefeated and highly talented Jaron Ennis was finally able to secure a unification fight. Ennis acquired the IBF world title in 2024 and secured 2 defences of it. Ennis attempted to pursue a unification bout against WBO champion Brian Norman Jr, however, negotiations broke down due to Norman’s team making silly demands. But, Ennis was able to secure a unification against WBA world champion Eimantas Stanionis. Ennis put a beating on Stannionis, who elected not to continue after the 6th round. Given Ennis’ size and struggles with making 147lbs questions arose as to if he would stick to 147lbs a little longer or just move up. Well, Ennis finally gave his answer.
Ennis Moves Up
Jaron Ennis, on his social media accounts, announced his move up and his plans. He confirmed that he is in fact moving up to 154lbs the super welterweight division. This is probably the best move for Ennis at this point in his career given the failed attempts at unifying with Norman Jr and Mario Barrios’ nonsense fight with Manny Pacquiao. Ennis was very big at 147lbs, and cutting the weight was clearly impacting his performances.
Moving up a weight should allow Ennis to be more energised in his fights and capitalise on his natural athleticism. Ennis also has the size and skill to compete against the contenders and champions. The current landscape of 154lbs is very stacked. Terence Crawford is the current WBA world champion and interim WBO champion, Sebastian Fundora is the WBC champion, and Bakhram Murtazaliev is the IBF champion.
However, these belts may change hands soon. Crawford is moving up to168 lbs to fight Canelo, so his title may be vacated, and he will likely retire soon. Fundora is fighting Tim Szyu in a rematch for what was a very competitive first fight in July. Contender Xander Zayas is fighting for the vacant WBO title against Jorge Perez in July. Murtazaliev currently has no fights lined up.
Jaron Ennis has a good chance against any of these champions, particularly Murtazaliev and the winner of Zayas vs Perez. There are also the high-level contenders such as Vergil Ortiz Jr and Serhii Bohachuk. Ennis will be a welcome addition to 154lbs and no doubt provide excellent fights in the division.
Implications For Welterweight
What Ennis’ departure from 147lbs does leave the division a little bare. Firstly, it means the IBF and WBA titles will now be vacant. So, we will likely have 2 new champions. The current highest ranked fighters in the IBF are Lewis Crocker and Paddy Donovan so a fight between those 2 could be likely. The 2 already fought however ended in a disqualification. So a rematch with the vacant title on the line would make sense.
Regarding the WBA title Rolly Romero is the regular world champion so could be upgraded to full world champion. Or Romero may fight for the vacant title against number 1 ranked Shakhram Giyasov. So, Ennis’ departure will cause a shake up in the champions of the divisions particularly when Ennis was the clear best in the division.
This may also mean we could get more unifications as the new champs are more beatable than Ennis. Perhaps Norman Jr could be more likely to unify against weaker champions. Regardless, Ennis’ move has implications for 147lbs and 154lbs and watching it all play out will be very interesting.
Featured image credit to Embed from Getty Images
