BN’s Verdict: Jaron “Boots” Ennis puts on another slick display to stop Roiman Villa after 10 innings

WITH the biggest and most important game in welterweight just three weeks away, Philadelphia’s Jaron “Boots” Ennis knows he has to deliver an eye-catching performance tonight (July 8) to secure told his name was still in the conversation about the 147-pound weight class that would come up ahead. He also achieved this impressively by stopping the game but limiting Roiman Villa in the 10th round and lifting his professional record to 33-0 (28).

Outstanding from the start, the gifted and well-educated American began talking about Villa as if he felt this was his chance to show off and one he couldn’t pass up. Perhaps, while he now knows and accepts his place in the heavier weight classification, and acknowledges that Terence Crawford and Errol Spence are the top two consensuses, Ennis is also aware. clear about the fact that he, 26, is seen as very much about the future of the thriving 147-pound division. After all, keep winning, and especially the way he did tonight, and Ennis could very well be on his way to taking the baton from Crawford or Spence, by fighting and defeating them, or simply take over when their moment is inevitable. to the end.

For now, all Ennis can do is keep winning and keep impressing, just like he did tonight on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City. Sharp, and always ready to pull the trigger with a complex, dangerous counter-attack, there was really never any doubt that he would win over Villa, who was always behind him, but in the end , that’s the way in which Ennis ended the battle, having taken Villa down most of the time, that really caught the eye.

It came in the 10th inning, this closing, and saw Ennis snap off the oncoming Colombian with a powerful left-handed swing from a south-facing stance before steadying him with an extreme right hook. quickly afterwards. Then, another left cross, this time with a glance, sent Villa rushing towards the canvas, at which point referee David Fields sent off the game without even counting.

At that stage, Villa, now 26-2 (24), was a beaten and tortured man and Fields, like most followers both in the arena and at home, was looking for a hint, or simply an excuse, to end the brutality. Thus, the sight of Villa collapsing onto the deck – being floated for the first time as a pro, nothing more – gave Fields the perfect opportunity to do what was possible and possible. should was done a little earlier, in fact.

Of course, Ennis, the winner, wouldn’t mind. He has secured the end of the outstanding reel he both craved and needed this month and there will now be many who see him as an equal to the likes of Crawford and Spence, not merely be the heir of the welterweight class or a person in the future; a future in which Crawford and Spence may or may not. Because at 31-0, and with him walking leisurely and swaggering to get there in no time, “Boots” might be ready to run.