Boots Ennis prepares for unified title fight against Xander Zayas

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ATLANTIC CITY, NEW JERSEY - APRIL 11: Jaron Ennis weighs in for his IBF, WBA and Ring Magazine welterweight championship fight against Eimantas Stanionis at the Circus Maximus at Caesars Atlantic City on April 11, 2025 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. (Photo by Ed Mulholland/Getty Images) | Getty Images Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis sits down for an interview with DAZN to talk about his upcoming title shot against unified super welterweight champion Xander Zayas on June 27, and during the conversation Boots would be asked about training and sparring with Canelo Alvarez, his upcoming fight with Zayas, and more. Check out some highlighted excerpts below with the full video in the link above. Boots on his sparring experience with Canelo “Great work. I was picking his brain and things like that, just getting better. Sparring is sparring, just working on things and just trying to better myself…I don’t speak on sparring, I’m not one of them type of guys. As long as I’m doing the things I’m supposed to be doing and working on the things I’m supposed to be working on, all that sparring — who did this, who did that — it don’t really mean nothing to me…Sparring is for you to physically work on stuff.” On how he would categorize himself as a fighter “I’m a variety. I can do it all. I can do whatever, I do what I want. I feel like I’m a boxer-puncher, I can walk people down, I can do inside fighting, outside fighting, mid-range — whatever you want, I can do it and I got the IQ to do it.” On what it means to be a ‘Philly fighter’ “It means a lot to put the city on my back and take the legacy to the next level and just continue to rise on different occasions…When it comes to boxing, I feel like we got the best fighters. Philly got so many good fighters, great fighters, they just get sidetracked from the streets and the girls, this, that and the third. There’s so much unseen talent that you guys don’t see.” On how he rates Xander Zayas as an opponent to Vergil Ortiz “Xander a solid fighter. I think he got a little bit more tools than Ortiz, maybe. He can box a little better but I feel like Vergil is somewhat the better fighter…Xander is not a bad fighter, he solid. He unified champ, you can’t take nothing away from him. But on fight night them belts are coming back to Philadelphia, straight like that.”

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Boots Ennis gets a chance to become a unified titleholder in a second weight class later this month when he takes on Xander Zayas.