Ryan Garcia has divided opinion by naming a former unified world champion as the most “overrated” fighter in boxing.
Garcia arguably put in the best performance of his career when he unanimously outpointed Mario Barrios last Saturday, becoming the WBC world welterweight champion.
It means his most notable victories have come against Barrios, Oscar Duarte and Luke Campbell – all solid operators – but some may claim the American is still yet to defeat an undeniably world-class opponent.
He did, of course, come close to doing just that in 2024, only for his majority decision win over Devin Haney to be overturned to a no-contest due to him testing positive for ostarine, a banned substance.
But while his own credentials at world level remain questionable, Garcia has nonetheless pointed towards Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis as being the most overrated big-name fighter in the sport today.
Ennis made his mark at 147lbs last year, unifying the IBF and WBA world titles with a sixth-round stoppage victory over Eimantas Stanionis.
Prior to that, his most notable scalp arguably came against David Avanesyan, a two-time world title challenger, who he stopped in the fifth round of their 2024 encounter.
Now campaigning at 154lbs, ‘Boots’ comes off a first-round finish over Uisma Lima in October, though Garcia still struggles to regard him as one of the sport’s finest pound-for-pound operators.
Speaking with YouTuber N3ON, ‘King Ry’ explained why he feels Ennis is getting credit he doesn’t deserve.
“I think Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis is overrated at this point. He hasn’t done anything in the sport. Nothing against him, I just think he’s overrated.”
With Ennis angling for a mouth-watering super-welterweight showdown with Vergil Ortiz Jr, perhaps he will soon prove that he is, in fact, one of the very best. If legal issues on Ortiz’s side prevent the match-up from taking place, promoter Eddie Hearn will look to manoeuvre ‘Boots’ into a world title clash at 154 quickly, with Josh Kelly a possibility.
