By Sam Volz: Leonard Ellerbe says Floyd Mayweather Jr. is impressed with what he’s seen from the young welterweight contender Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis and thinks highly of him.
The 24-year-old Ennis (29-0, 27 KOs) stole the limelight away from unified junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo last Saturday night with his second-round knockout win over Custio Clayton in an IBF welterweight title eliminator on Showtime in Carson, California.
Mayweather Promotions CEO Ellerbe says he received a call from Floyd a while ago, with him raving about how impressed he was after watching one of Boots Ennis’s fights.
Ellerbe says he’d like to sign Boots Ennis to Mayweather Promotions, as they would be able to get him all the important fights that he would want.
Ennis’s victory over Clayton (19-1-1, 12 KOs) earned him the mandatory spot for IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. However, Spence, who was at Boots Ennis’ fight last Saturday night, said his focus is only on fighting Terence Crawford for the undisputed 147-lb championship.
It’s likely that the winner of the Spence vs. Crawford fight will vacate the four titles and then move up to 154. As such, Boots will fight one of the top contenders for one of the vacant belts.
“You talking about a beast. Again, people want to criticize him. ‘You’re not fighting nobody.’ Nah, trust and believe, Boots is the real deal,” said Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe to Fighthype.
“I can recall; it was a little while ago, and I got a phone call. Floyd was like ‘Who the f*** is this Boots guy? That mother f**** can fight his a** off.’ He’s right now one of the best fighters in the world without a belt because everyone determines.
“The highest goal you can achieve is to become a champion, but that doesn’t necessarily mean until you match up with somebody else. But the guy that is able to hold onto that hardware, that’s the guy that continues night in and night out that proves that he’s better than any guy that is out there.
“Floyd called me, and I’m not going to say the timing for when it was, but he just watched the fight, and he was like, ‘Who the f*** is this guy, Boots Ennis?’ I said, ‘Floyd, I’ve been telling you about him.’
“Again, he’s a tremendous fighter. His dad [Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis], I can’t say enough about his dad. He’s a great guy; he comes from a fighting family. What I love about Boots Ennis is he’s my kind of guy.
“His work ethic is crazy. He don’t drink; he don’t smoke. His focus is this s*** right here [the ring]. He’s not chasing the broads, he’s focused on his career, and again, I would love to work with a guy like that.
“If Boots Ennis signs with Mayweather Promotions, I guarantee you that the fights that he’s looking to get, he’ll get those fights, and he’ll make a bunch of f**** money doing it too,” said Ellerbe.
