Boots steps up to the next level after Villa violence
Plus, Ortiz withdraws, precise Pacheco and RIP Antwun Echols
According to the local tourist website Visit Philadelphia, the neighbourhood of Germantown “seamlessly blends yesterday and today”. One might suggest that the boxing lineage of this historical settlement follows a similar pattern. Around the mid-2000s middleweight Derek ‘Pooh’ Ennis and super-middleweight Farah Ennis were two rising prospects.
Their father Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis, himself a luckless pro in the late 70s/early 80s, forged their skills in his notorious Philly gym known as The Dungeon. Across a 12-year career, ‘Pooh’ never graduated past regional title level. It was a similar story for Farah who put together some good winning runs in his nine years, but always fell over a hurdle when on the verge of reaching that next level.
As solid and dependable as the brotherly contenders proved to be, Germantown would soon spawn another Ennis sibling. The fighters of yesterday have been seamlessly surpassed by the talent of today as the one they call ‘Boots’ stepped out on his own.
The jury is still very much out on Jaron Ennis. Despite his 10-round pounding of Roiman Villa in Atlantic City last weekend, there are still things to work on, skill gaps to close and resume craters that need to be filled with a scoop load of verified names.
Those are some of the things I’m hearing in the aftermath, anyway. As regular readers of this blog, or regular listeners to the podcast, will already know: I love a hype train. Even before this headline Showtime shellacking I was pretty much sold on the Philadelphian’s future prospects. Not only is Wellings on board the latest locomotive, I’m toiling away at the front, red faced, shovelling in coal as fast as my little writing hands can manage.
Photo Credit: Reddit
Aged 26, Ennis is a fighter in his prime. He merely needed the correct opponent to bring out the best in him. Standing in front of Boots, hands cupped around his head, Villa ably obliged in his assumed role. While Rashidi Ellis enjoyed early success against the Venezuelan in their January encounter, as that fight went down the stretch Roiman subtly closed the distance to land heavy bombs. For all of his skills, ‘Speedy’ Rashidi couldn’t punch hard enough to inflict any lasting damage on Villa or keep him off in the later rounds.
Ennis did enough damage for the both of them. Taking advantage of the early enthusiasm and big event buzz (all of which was set up for him to shine) Jaron built steady momentum and never let up. The jab was busy, hands flying from a variety of directions. Whenever Villa moved his own mitts too high, Ennis gratefully accepted the invitation to pound the body.
As he had achieved against Ellis, Villa looked to weather the early storm and get deep into the contest to assert his will. Ennis took centre ring, backing Villa up, drawing blood from the nose as the challenger’s desperation grew. Any possible success would come from tagging the body, but he was too slow to get inside and hammer Ennis’ torso before being tattooed with return flurries. Consequently, he swung away gamely to the head, searching for some kind of equaliser.
Comfortable in either stance, Ennis mostly remained orthodox, using the honey punch right hand to badly wobble his man in the sixth while swaying out of range for any return fire.
The left uppercut hurt Villa from distance in what was a torrid seventh round where he soaked up a lot of punishment. The concerned ringside doctor peeked into the Villa corner after round eight. Villa showed tremendous heart, but was second best in every department.
Ennis, meanwhile, wasn’t even blowing hard and had enough in the tank to unleash a ferocious combination in the 10th that finally put his adversary to bed. Villa can come again. Ennis will come again.
The Philadelphia man said he wants to fight anyone in the division and will happily take on Eimantas Stanionis next. That seems a nice, natural fight to make given the fact that PBC “stablemate” Stanionis has once again been left without a dance partner in the aftermath of Vergil Ortiz’s ongoing health problems. Stanionis was due to defend his version of the WBA welterweight title(s). Ennis currently holds the IBF Interim crown.
The best of the rest can contest and defend these secondary titles while they wait for the winner of the ultimate showdown - outcome yet to be decided. On July 29, Errol Spence and Terence Crawford go to war for all four of the real belts. We’ll probably never see it, but Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis would give the winner or loser of that bout absolute hell.
R.I.P. ‘KID DYNAMITE’ ANTWUN ECHOLS
It was sad to hear that former middleweight contender Antwun Echols passed away last week at the age of 51. Hailing from Memphis, Echols made his home in Davenport, Iowa and called time on his long career in 2016.
A rather unflattering final record read as 32-22-4, but many of those losses came at the end when he was well and truly an opponent. 28 career KOs were testament to his ability to hit extremely hard and earned Antwun the nickname ‘Kid Dynamite’.
Turning pro in 1993, Echols actually lost his debut fight. Bouncing back with a string of victories, mixed in with another loss and a draw, Antwun found himself boxing for the IBF middleweight title in 1999, losing a wide decision to the excellent Bernard Hopkins. One year later, Echols rematched Hopkins for the same title and was knocked out in 10.
Photo Credit: The Sun
However, it was his next fight that entered into boxing folklore as Echols went to war with Charles Brewer in a 2001 classic. Dropped three times in the second round, Antwun rallied back to stop Brewer in the next session.
Moving up in weight he travelled to Australia to fight Anthony Mundine for the vacant WBA super-middleweight crown in 2003, losing a competitive decision. Following up the Mundine loss with two wins, Echols embarked on a barren run of 21 contests where he only tasted victory once more (three of those fights did end in draws).
Reported to be the father of 23 children (Antwun himself struggled to remember exactly how many) the veteran had been planning to open up a gym as part of a new phase of his life. Unfortunately, it was not to be, as he died on July 2 from complications related to diabetes.
VERGIL ORTIZ WITHDRAWS AGAIN FROM STANIONIS CLASH
The highly anticipated clash between Vergil Ortiz and Eimantas Stanionis was called off once again as Ortiz suffered further health problems. This cursed encounter will never take place - at least not at welterweight. I was listening to Ortiz’s manager Rick Mirigian speak recently and he claimed that the medical issues had been dealt with and his fighter was moving on. Apparently not.
To his credit, Ortiz at least tried to make the weight. Pushing himself so hard that he ended up fainting, there can be no starker warning sign than this to call time at welterweight and move on up. Vergil has missed weight in the past and suffered from rhabdomyolysis.
Boxing Asylum Podcast: The lads briefly discussed Ortiz’s plight
Therefore, while we treat a move up to 154, availing of those extra seven pounds, as a silver bullet destined to solve this problem, the question is: what if it’s not just cutting weight that is causing these ongoing problems? Ortiz appears to have some kind of underlying medical concern that needs to be urgently addressed before something more sinister takes hold.
NUTHOUSE NOTES
Diego Pacheco posted an impressive display on Friday evening in Mexico as he unleashed a relentless flurry on Manuel Gallegos in round four. Pacheco moved off the jab and picked some lovely shots as the physical Gallegos applied a steady stream of pressure. Pacheco abandoned the head and focused on the body in the fourth, dropping Gallegos before a frenzied combination forced the referee’s hand.
It’s hard not to feel good for Marquis Taylor, who scored a career-best win on the Jaron Ennis undercard. Arriving as a non-puncher, facing a man in Yoelvis Gomez who is all about landing big power shots, Taylor used every physical advantage in his make-up to drop a favoured foe, outmuscle and out-think him over 10 rounds.
Gomez was supposed to fight Jeison Rosario last November but he injured his wrist. The Cuban southpaw was floored in round two from a right hand off a clinch in this one. In fact, speaking through an interpreter, trainer Joe Goossen admonished Gomez for stepping out of the clinches with his hands down. Taylor has an interesting style and will never be a world beater, but the Texan has earned himself another TV slot on Showtime after this upset win.
After round four of the opening Showtime bout, trainer Chelo Betancourt told Edwin De Los Santos: “You have the best jab in this division”. 10 dominant rounds later, southpaw Edwin displayed elements of his game that we had not seen before. Victim Joseph Adorno moved just enough in the final rounds to survive but was never in any danger of winning the contest.
Once a classy amateur, now a contender-level pro, Adorno only claimed a single round across the three scorecards. De Los Santos, meanwhile, will be a big problem for anybody at 135 pounds. My esteemed colleague Matty DiGi liked Edwin’s skillset to that of Adonis Stevenson.
Thanks for reading! Drop a little heart or even a comment if you get a minute. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Speak to you all next week…
About Steve: Experienced boxing writer, author of 8 books and podcaster of over 400 eps. 20 years in the sport. Covered hundreds of shows for newspapers and Boxing News magazine. Chief video script writer for Motivedia channel and BN+. For enquiries: stevenwellings1982@gmail.com.