By Matt Lieberman: Trainer Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis is warning Errol Spence Jr not to return to 147 after going up to 154 to face Keith Thurman in April.
Bozy, the father/trainer of undefeated interim IBF welterweight champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, says that Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) could be drained if he comes back down to 147.
For example, Roy Jones Jr was never the same after returning from heavyweight to light heavyweight in 2003. Jones’ career immediately fell apart, with him losing to Antonio Tarver twice & Glen Johnson.
If Spence is going up to 154 to stay, it would be better for him because he already looked like a skeleton when he made weight for his last fight at welterweight against Yordenis Ugas last April.
For Spence’s sake, he needs to listen to Bozy, surrender his IBF, WBA & WBC welterweight belts, and stay at 154 after his fight with ‘One Time’ Thurman (30-1, 22 KOs).
With undisputed junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo fighting just once a year and becoming less active like his twin brother Jermall, he may need to give up one of his 154-lb belts, which would be ideal for Spence to scoop up.
Spence must decide
“They’re still going around him and putting and putting other people on him just to get him out of the way,” said Bozy Ennis to Fighthype about his son ‘Boots’ Ennis being avoided by the welterweight champions Errol Spence Jr and Terence Crawford.
“We’re coming. No matter who you put on us, we’re going to take them out. We would love to fight him,” said Bozy when told that Roiman Villa was rumored to be fighting ‘Boots’ Ennis next. We want all the top guys. We’re waiting in line for the title.
Roiman Villa (26-1, 24 KOs) is the perfect option for Boots Ennis (30-0, 27 KOs) to fight next because he’s coming off a 12 round majority decision over Rashidi Ellis on January 7th, and he’s young at 29.
Yordenis Ugas, another fighter that Bozy mentions, is 36 and is coming off a tenth round stoppage loss to Spence from last April. There’s nothing for Boots to gain fighting Ugas because boxing fans will likely discredit him due to Spence having softened him up.
“We already got, what you can call half of the title whatever because it’s a world title interim belt, the IBF interim world title,” said Bozy. “That’s what it says on it. We can’t keep fighting for no interim all that stuff. We need to fight for the world title because we’re in line for that with Spence as the mandatory.
“Ain’t nothing we can do but keep fighting until they give it to us, and I don’t care who it is. I’ve been hearing the guy, Villa. We would love to fight Villa. I’ve been hearing Ugas. We would really love to fight Ugas. All the guys at the top. We don’t care who they are, do you know what I mean? We’re willing to take them.
“But after this, whoever we fight next, we want to fight for the world title. They can’t keep dodging us. They said to make the decision to fight Crawford, though,” said Bozy when told that Errol Spence Jr has 60 days to make a decision after his April fight against Keith Thurman.
“That’s to fight Crawford, and after that, we already put up, he’s got 120 days for whoever he’ll be fighting, he has 120 days, and he got to sign to fight Boots.
Errol shouldn’t come back down
“I don’t know,” said Bozy when asked if Spence will come back down from 154 after his fight against Thurman to return to 147 to defend his IBF title against Jaron Ennis. “If it’s hard for him to make that weight, I wouldn’t even try to come back down.
“Once those guys go up and come back down, there’s always something that happens. It all depends on how you can carry that weight, though. That’s what I’m saying. I don’t know how it’s going to affect him,” Bozy said about Spence, who might find it difficult to drain back down to 147 after he competes against old ‘One Time’ Thurman at 154.
“You see what happened to Roy Jones when Roy went up and he came back down [to light heavyweight] and looked what happened [he got knocked out by Antonio Tarver, and his career was never the same].
“He didn’t give his body enough time to recuperate and stay down at that weight and get a lighter opponent or something when you come back down instead of fighting a top guy.
“People are looking for him to knock everybody out, but like I said, I’m glad it went the distance, though,” said Bozy about ‘Boots’ Ennis’ last fight against runner Karen Chukhadzhian on January 7th in Washington, D.C.
“It showed me that he can go the distance, he can go twelve rounds, and you noticed this that he wasn’t tired at all he stand up between the rounds. He never sat down,” Bozy continued about Boots.
“Like I was telling everybody that when you fight a guy that has his mind already set not to get knocked out, he’s not going to get knocked out. I told Boots, ‘You got to cut the ring off more.’ I guess Boots was getting a little frustrated because he’s used to guys that are at least trying to fight.
“He wasn’t trying to fight,” said Bozy about Karen Chukhadzhian. “So every fighter in one lifetime, they’re going to run into a guy like that. Everybody is going to run into somebody like that. As long as you stay in boxing, you’re going to run into somebody that is just in it to survive.
“You saw many times. It was a good experience, but sometimes it makes the fight look ugly. That’s my thing right there, and that’s what I said when I was talking to the other guy. I told him, ‘Maybe they’ll fight him now,’” said Bozy Ennis about Crawford, Spence, and other top fighters who might be more interested in facing Boots after the way he failed to shine against Chukhadzhian.
