FLOAT LIKE A BEE JUNIOR MIDDLE GROUND
boxing community. Some felt as though Ennis and Ortiz were too dangerous a proposition and didn’t bring enough value to the table for bigger stars; others felt as though the youngsters and their promoters were manufacturing a mirage through softer matchups while secretly ducking bigger opportunities. This is the nature of boxing discourse – fittingly rooted in combative debate for a sport that is simply a fight. Only a few fighters get the opportunity that Crawford did against Canelo Alvarez recently, where he was able to completely erase all prior dialogue and prove that he is indeed who he always said he was. The rest carry the burden of proof and are constantly looking for ways to shed it. Ennis became a world titleholder for the first time in 2023 when he was upgraded by the IBF at welterweight after Crawford vacated. He defended three times against David Avanesyan, Karen Chukhadzhian and Eimantas Stanionis, in the third also unifying
with the WBA title and winning the vacant Ring championship. Those versions of Chukhadzhian and Stanionis would have made for a hellacious night for 99% of the welterweights in the world at the time but were rendered ineffective, and in Stanionis’ case nearly unconscious, by Ennis. The greatest conflict in either fight was in Ennis’ corner, where he expressed frustration about the fact that he was dominating thoroughly but hadn’t yet knocked Chukhadzhian out, the equivalent of being up by 10 runs but upset that you hadn’t hit an upper- deck home run yet. It was as blatant a depiction of a fighter hitting their head on the ceiling of available opposition as one can remember, a fighter fixating on side quests because the main mission was too easy. Ortiz’s welterweight run peaked with destructive wins over Maurice Hooker, Egidijus Kavaliauskas and Michael McKinson, wiping out the “second tier” of 147-pound contenders that
was available to him in violent fashion. However, Ortiz’s greatest battle at welterweight would be physiological, as recurring bouts of rhabdomyolysis hospitalized him on more than one occasion, and was party to a near-two- year absence from the ring between 2022 and 2024. As the issues persisted, concerns about whether Ortiz could ever return to the ring began, followed by sheer concern for his wellness. However, a move up to 154 seemed to revitalize Ortiz. No longer having to torture himself to get down to the welterweight limit, he dispatched Frederick Lawson and Thomas Dulorme in less than a round each. Ortiz would find his first true challenge in Serhii Bohachuk, hitting the canvas twice in a Fight of the Year contender. He followed it up with a
Uisma Lima lasted just under two minutes against Ennis in October.
Ortiz closed the gap on Erickson Lubin, then unleashed hell.
promoter, manager or even a self- confident fighter proclaiming that the next boxing star has arrived. The vast majority of those dreams die somewhere in the developmental stages, and before long the bombastic press releases get filtered into the junk bins of reporters’ email accounts. Only a handful of those prospects ever emerge as contenders. Even fewer become championship-caliber fighters, and only a few per era wind up being a part of the mainstream discussion the way Ennis and Ortiz have. Both men came into the public’s consciousness around the same time, between 2018 and 2020, becoming regular fixtures on prospect development shows on separate platforms. Ennis blossomed mainly on Showtime, where he is a part of an illustrious list of ShoBox graduates, while Ortiz cut his teeth on Golden Boy Fight Night shows and undercards of larger events. Their formative years occurred during a time of deep division in the sport, when fighters on the
PBC/Showtime side of the aisle rarely mingled with those under any other promotional tent or broadcast outlet such as DAZN. In baseball terms, Ennis and Ortiz would be like an American League and a National League team – kept separate unless they were to clash in a mega event, the World Series. Except, of course, boxing is not like baseball or any other sport in terms of its scheduling. Not only could Ennis and Ortiz’s paths not cross without a miraculous thaw occurring between business entities, but they also couldn’t find themselves in the ring with any of the other “good teams,” even the ones in their own league. For a long time, the two men were burdened with proving a level of potential and talent that their opposition couldn’t fully validate. In some ways, it was the Roy Jones Jr. paradox: Was he matched soft, or was he just so good that he made his opposition look inept? Ennis and Ortiz generally blasted their way through opponents who were otherwise durable
and competitive in a fashion so dominant that it wowed many viewers but made others cynical, especially in Ennis’ case. When prospects look the way Ennis and Ortiz did in their ascent, there is always an eagerness about seeing them in the ring with the biggest stars of the day. Those who believe the talent level is as advertised want to see themselves proved right, and the skeptics relish in seeing the balloon of a hyped fighter popped. The first time Ennis mentioned wanting to fight Terence Crawford was in 2018, and it wasn’t long before Ortiz was speaking about wanting fights with both Crawford and Errol Spence. Those possibilities have been discussed consistently ever since. As the cycle of fantasy-to-rumored fights came and went, allegations of ducking on all sides abounded in the
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