Jaron Ennis Gets Hit Way Too Much

Agreed.

 

I watched the fight and highlights again, it's really quite amazing that a fighter can miss punches constantly like Boots while getting caught flush and still be seen as some elite fighter. Boots looked very comfortable and confident, but the vast majority of his punches didn't land clean. The way that confidence can shape the perception of a fight is interesting to me, one fighters punches counting for so much more based on hype and confidence. Boots landed a couple of good body shots and was clearly the bigger and stronger guy, but apart from that he was punching gloves or air with almost every little flashy combination exciting the commentators and crowd. I find him to be offensive for that reason, it comes across almost as cheating by taking advantage of outside psychological and perceptive weaknesses. By the sport of boxing and objective viewing he's very average. To be fair to Boots I think it worked to demoralise his opponent as well, that playful and confident demeanor seemed to do more to Stan's self belief than anything else.

 

Spot on. He's a weight bully industry plant.

 

This thread will be a goldmine for Boots fans lol

 

I don't understand what you're hinting at. If Boots improves and lives up to the hype I'll be pleased. If he can make heavy hitting 154 pounders quit like he did with Stanionis while rarely landing punches I'd admit that I was wrong about his potential. It's just a sport we are watching, don't get so involved and parasocial with your favourite superheros. I'm a fan of the sport and happy to admit when I'm wrong about something. The people claiming that Boots is special are clearly wrong in my eyes, time will tell. At least up to this point they are clearly mistaken considering how ordinary he looks against lesser challenges. Is there a possibility that he is only being defensively and creatively poor because his opposition doesn't pose a threat and he has more skills waiting in the bag that he hasn't had to show so far? Sure, but I doubt it. Getting caught flush and struggling to land clean punches isn't something that you usually try to do.

 

Exactly. Boots' showmanship gains points from judges, it seems like. Simply because the smaller fighter doesn't respond to it regardless of the fact the combination didn't do any damage or maybe even didn't land much. Consistently vs Stanionis, he would get popped hard in the face in between a bunch of 'touch touch' flashy punches that's clearly hitting gloves. The commentators would spend more time addressing how fast his hands are rather than addressing, he just got blasted with his hands down for the 3rd or 4th time in the fight. And we wasn't even in the 6th round yet.

Naturally, I expect the audience to lean towards the flashiness as majority of the crowd is individuals that have never stepped in the ring nor even educated themselves on what's going on in the ring. The fans want to see hard punches, knock outs, and charismatic defense. Ennis, being that he is in the ring vs smaller opponents, he's able to showcase all three of these tools because the power being thrown back at him doesn't keep him honest. Had that of been a Brian Castano (wonder where he's been), Jermell Charlo, Terence Crawford, Vergil Ortiz Jr, or some other 154lb'er..... Ennis isn't going to be so comfortable dancing and playing around with his opponent even though he isn't really having the success the audience thinks he's having, because boxers know when they are landing clean punches vs hitting gloves and/or missing on their combinations.

It's hilarious that Ennis and his camp along with his new promoter, want us to forget that he was using the execuse of being weight drained for his performance vs Karen just a few months ago. He hinted at how uncomfortable he was making 147 as the scapegoat to the fact that Karen went 12 rounds with him for the 2nd time and this time he wasn't dancing away from him. He was initiating the exchanges more times than not. Ennis understands that moving up to 154lbs or 160lbs he will be challenged more by even the average opponents based off of the size and power gap being shrunk.

Honestly, I'm not sold on him being all that powerful. And it could be just me. I didn't want to bring it up because I'm not a conspiracy guy, but I've seen quite a few of Stanionis's fights. Not just highlights. He's a solid opponent. Seen him withstand some devasting blows/attacks and still respond. As you pointed out, in this fight vs Ennis, many of those punches weren't clean. There was some that got through to the body, but not as often as to cause Stanionis to quit on the stool. Hell, the clean punches didn't start landing to the body until late in the 3rd, early 4th round. Stanionis seemed more durable based on his previous work, to me. I don't want to say he took a dive and/or was paid to bow out, but he definitely wasn't butchered so much he couldn't continue the fight.

 

Boots doesn't need to improve to terrorize 154 is the point

 

I think the phenomenon I mentioned is why people thought Usyk-Fury 1 was a close fights when in reality it was wide. Fury didn't showboat in the second but I think he actually boxed a lot better and made it a closer fight. Yet many people think Usyk-Fury 2 is where Usyk showed his clear superiority in a more dominant victory.

Stanionis took very little damage, he got hurt by a few body shots but he looked discouraged throughout despite often getting the better of it and landing the cleaner punches. I think a weakness of European fighters is sometimes that humble just box attitude, if Stanionis showboated right back at Ennis then no one would have thought that Ennis was doing so well. It's gamesmanship, posture/confidence affects judges as well. When Lomachenko was making opponents quit he was showboating, it discourages opponents and everyone watching just believes you're dominating if you show that confidence. Compare that demeanour to his losses, which were all close fights. Even the Teo loss, that fight is a lot closer than many make it out to be. Why? Because Teo looked confident despite landing very few punches.

Yeah I'm certainly not convinced that Boots hits harder than Butaev, and Stan took far more damage against Butaev without ever looking like wilting.

 

Okay so you're out of your mind, thanks for letting me know.

 

Says the guy who would pick Stanionis again

 

Yes, the Stanionis from the Butaev fight. You're a Boots fan, I'm a boxing fan. Each to their own.

 

The criticism of his defense is exaggerated, that eimantas doesn't do anything better

 

Watch the highlights, who is getting caught flush? You don't think Stanionis is much, fine. Then why did Boots show that many flaws against him? And then you think Boots will dominate the 154 division with all those killers. I don't think I have anything else to say, I can't reason with nonsense.

 

Boots won every round and nobody said Stanionis was a bad fighter. The results will prove themselves, Boots has a good chin

 

You think Boots won every round. That's why I can't take you seriously when you talk about him. He has looked stunned against a couple of light punchers now, he can't take those flush punches against 154 pound fighters.