Jaron Ennis is currently in the midst of a court case against NOW Boxing, a promotional outfit founded by the late Cameron Dunkin following his stint as a boxing manager for over three decades. Ennis initiated the lawsuit on February 7th and is reportedly seeking a release himself from NOW Boxing, as well as an estimate of $1 million in damages.
NOW Boxing is currently led by Kellie Dunkin, the widow of Cameron Dunkin who died earlier this year in January. Through reports gathered from BoxingScene, Jaron Ennis’ (31-0, 28 KO’s) lawsuit alleges that he had been promised a steady flow of fights―of roughly 2/3 times a year―upon signing with NOW Boxing in 2019, but has thus far fought only 10 times over the course of approximately five years which has caused his career to stall.
During this period, Ennis fought predominantly on Showtime Boxing. In 2023, Ennis featured in the co-main event of the Gervonta Davis-Hector Garcia event in January of 2023 where he became the IBF interim welterweight champion after defeating Karen Chukhadzian (23-2, 13 KO’s) by unanimous decision (UD), before headlining his own show on July 8th in the same year when he faced Venezuelan welterweight contender Roiman Villa (26-2, 24 KO’s) and soundly defeated him by knockout (KO) to defend his IBF interim welterweight title for the first time.
Several months later, Jaron Ennis would be promoted to full IBF welterweight champion as its previous holder, Terence Crawford (40-0, 31 KO’s) was stripped due to his obligation to face Errol Spence Jr. in a rematch.
According to the lawsuit, Ennis had been not offered any fight since defeating Roiman Villa in July of 2023, and he is now attempting to force his way out of the company through legal means while also looking for an approximate amount of $1 million for his career being stalled by the promotion. The apparent inexperience by Kellie Dunkin as a boxing promoter has been cited as one of the reasons why Ennis is seeking to depart from the promotional outfit.
Though Bozy Ennis, father and coach of Jaron Ennis, revealed earlier this month that a fight was planned with WBC interim welterweight champion Mario Barrios (28-2, 18 KO’s) for May, the current lawsuit against NOW Boxing threatens to derail this potential fight―though it has not yet been officially announced.
Thus far, there does appear to be noticeable issues between Ennis and NOW Boxing given he has failed to be matched with any notable opponent since defeating Villa last year. Former welterweight champion Keith Thurman recently revealed that Jaron Ennis had not been included amongst potential opponents to face when he had been offered multiple options on who to fight.
“Boots was not on the contract for the first quarter of this year,” Thurman told Thaboxingvoice during an interview.
“The contracts I’ve seen did not include Boots, that’s why I’m fighting Tim Tszyu instead of Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, even though Ennis holds the IBF welterweight title.”
As the IBF welterweight champion, Ennis options at welterweight are slim if he is looking to build is name against household names. A fight with unified welterweight champion Terence Crawford no longer seems to be on the cards, while the rest of the welterweight division is currently absent of any notable fighters excepting Thurman who will be fighting at super welterweight/junior welterweight on March 30 against Tim Tszyu (24-0, 17 KO’s).
In that regard, it is unknown how much effort NOW Boxing has put in to deliver a fight to Ennis since Kellie Dunkin took charge of the company, but there did at least seem to be a Thurman fight on the cards that would be a significant fight for Ennis to boost his profile with. In a competitive sense, there are other available contenders that Ennis could stay busy against, but with his current lawsuit and the IBF’s neglect to order him to face a mandatory challenger, Ennis’ career seems to have been placed in limbo for the time being.
