Some were surprised at how easily Jaron “Boots” Ennis disposed of Eimantas Stanionis in their April 12 welterweight unification bout. 

Tim Bradley Jnr saw it coming. 

“Styles make fights,” the Hall of Famer told BoxingScene. “When you have a boxer-puncher like Boots, who has all the attributes – the reach, the size, the hand speed, the foot speed, he had all the attributes to go along with the skill – and you’re fighting a guy that’s one-dimensional, a guy that just comes to fight, nine times out of 10, this is the type of performance you’re gonna get.”

Though Stanionis had the best pedigree of any of Ennis’ opponents to date, Boots, now 34-0 (30 KOs), proved Bradley right and steamrolled his fellow titleholder. 

Ennis outlanded Stanionis in power shots in every round, even doubling Stanionis’ landed power punches in every round but one. Ennis scored a knockdown in the sixth with repeated, vicious uppercuts. Though Stanionis made it out of the round, his corner pulled the plug on the bout before Round 7.

“Boots was in the flow state Saturday,” Bradley said. “When you get in your flow state, different things happen to different fighters. It becomes harmonious, and every move you make is perfect. Perfect timing. It feels right, it feels good. You see everything coming. It’s almost like you in a trance and everything is slowing down.”

Bradley was confident of the outcome going in, live-streaming his reaction to the bout on his YouTube channel (at a commenter’s suggestion, he filmed at an angle that captured the fight’s reflection in a glass door) and exclaiming “I told you” at bout’s end. 

“He made it look easy,” Bradley said. “I knew he was going to look spectacular, and I knew everybody afterwards gonna be talking about, ‘Oh my god, Boots is this!’ If Boots didn’t do this, then he a hype job. Seriously. Boots has too many skills and too many attributes not to do what he did Saturday night.”

Though Stanionis landed a few stiff jabs and clean counters, he didn’t have the depth to truly punish Ennis. One reason why, Bradley observed, is because of his high guard. 

“He tucks up in a high guard. He uses one form of defense,” Bradley said. “Boots showed you everything on how to destroy it. Go around it, punch between it, come underneath it. He exposed that high guard of Stanionis.”

The high guard can be a strength for a fighter like Dmitry Bivol, whose twitchy, in-and-out footwork makes him extremely hard to hit cleanly. Stanionis is a very different fighter. He comes forward constantly, which creates suffocating pressure but can also make him a hittable target.

“Every time Stanionis would throw the right hand, he would fall in. Boots was in the southpaw stance, so Boots would just take a half-step and hit him with the uppercut,” Bradley observed.

In the sixth round, after curling a few body shots around Stanionis’ elbows that forced him to retreat, Ennis cornered his foe and spammed his left uppercut. Stanionis sank to a knee.

“Boots knew that he was gonna stop him,” Bradley said. “Boots was like, ‘I’m stopping him.’ Yeah, exactly. He has too much skills for a guy like Stanionis. A lot of people were saying, ‘Oh, well, Tim, Stanionis is a champion.’ I’m like, ‘I get it. I understand. But there’s levels to this.’”

The odds back Bradley up. Going into the fight, Ennis was a heavy favorite at every sportsbook. And recent matchups like Keyshawn Davis-Denys Berinchyk are evidence that having a title doesn’t necessarily mean a fighter is immune to getting steamrolled. 

Bradley on what’s in store for Ennis at welterweight and beyond

Though Ennis has unified two titles and solidified his status as the best welterweight in the world, his path forward is not entirely clear. The theoretically obvious step is to pursue a fight with the other welterweight titleholders: Mario Barrios (WBC) or Brian Norman Jnr (WBO). But Ennis, a big 5-foot-10 welterweight, may not be long for the division. And a stacked junior middleweight division would present the prospect of bigger fights. 

“Everybody was concerned about the weight,” Bradley said. “Ennis, getting on the scale, looked really sucked up. I don’t know how much longer he’s gonna be able to make this weight. But there wasn’t no rehydration clause in the contract, and I think that helped him.”

The IBF, whose belt was the first Ennis won, requires a second weigh-in, which takes place the day of the fight. However, that rule does not apply to unification bouts.

Ennis remains prone to errors in the ring. His superb talent means he passes the eye test but can also lead to some bad habits. Ennis has proven himself capable of rolling, slipping and dodging punches before, but he can stay in the pocket for an instant too long or disregard defense entirely in search of a brawl, which tends to get him clocked with punches that land a tad cleaner than they should against an elite fighter.

“Boots does a lot of things you’re not supposed to do, but he gets away with it because of his athleticism. Because of his reflexes. Because of his size. And that’s the reason why he gets clipped a lot,” Bradley said.

This is what makes Ennis so compelling to many – his talent leaps off the screen, and his imperfections have proven too small for his unblemished record to be in danger. If Ennis could just fix those flaws, his ceiling would rise tantalizingly higher than it already is. Bradley says that Ennis and Teofimo Lopez are the most athletic fighters in boxing today.

“I’ve always thought [highly] of Boots. Even when everyone was bashing Boots, I’ve always thought high of Boots,” Bradley said. “I see the gifts! He’s got special gifts. There’s certain fighters in the game that get blessed with speed, or blessed with power, like a Deontay Wilder – but he can’t box worth nothing, because he started late and the way he was taught. But you rarely ever get a guy that has everything.”

Ennis has been unable to secure a marquee fight to this point in his career. Bradley would next like to see a fight with Norman.

“[Ennis] gets hit with too many left hooks. And that needs to be fixed. Because if you get in there with a guy like Norman, who has a left hook, knows how to turn that shot over – he has a quick little check hook and he can step in with a lead left hook – Boots gonna be in trouble, man. Because Norman can punch. Styles, again.”

As far as a big-stage opponent, someone with whom Ennis could share a pay-per-view, however? Bradley floated a name yet to fight at welterweight. 

“At 147, there’s not a whole lot of cooking to do. But I’ll tell you this. There’s a couple guys who are going up north to 147 who are 140-pounders. You got [Devin] Haney. You got Ryan Garcia. I wouldn’t mind seeing [Ennis] fight against a Ryan Garcia at 147. Ryan Garcia don’t duck no smoke. He likes all the top fights out there, and he wouldn’t mind getting in there with Boots. He gotta handle his business against Rolly [Rolando Romero], and then after that he gotta handle his business against Haney. But that could be a future big, big mega-fight for Boots.”