Tuesday, April 8

ATLANTIC CITY – Eimantas Stanionis was absent when he and Jaron “Boots” Ennis were scheduled to come face to face for the first time in the week of their fight for the IBF and WBA welterweight titles. It is on Saturday at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall that they both enter what is expected to prove the toughest fight of their respectable careers, but they were denied the opportunity to secure a potential psychological advantage when Stanionis struggled to reorganize his flight from Los Angeles to Philadelphia in time to be at the Boys and Girls Club of America, in Atlantic City, early on Tuesday evening.

Ennis, 27, had visited one school in his home city of Philadelphia earlier on Tuesday. There had also existed plans for him to visit another, but fears surrounding possible violence between the youths of the Philadelphia neighborhood of Strawberry Mansion, where those plans were scheduled to unfold, meant that they were abandoned. 

Stanionis, perhaps, can empathize. His heavily pregnant partner could even give birth to the baby they are expecting before he makes his way to the ring on Saturday – atypically, she will not be present on fight night – and it is therefore even more difficult for him to make plans.

In the Lithuanian’s absence – and there is little question that the both talented and promising Ennis is the biggest attraction involved in Saturday’s promotion – Ennis sat answering questions asked by both children and teenagers with an admirable humility and warmth. The IBF champion is far from the most vocal of fighters, regardless of the wit and charisma BoxingScene and others have witnessed when he is away from microphones and cameras, but from the center of an indoor basketball court he was happy to answer repeated questions from an audience sat on rows to one side of that court, aware as he no doubt was that that audience had minimal understanding of his profession.

If Ennis is to prove himself the next great welterweight of the modern era – Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao and Terence Crawford are the others – then the day will no doubt come when many of that audience reflect fondly on their memories of having spoken to him. When he answered that Mayweather, Roy Jones Jnr, Pernell Whittaker and James Toney were among his favorite fighters it was difficult to avoid the conclusion that Mayweather wouldn't have handled a similar occasion with anything like the same consistent grace. The solitary time a question led to a slightly different reaction from him was because it surrounded whether he could beat Jake Paul. That he wasn’t instead asked about Mayweather or Crawford was another reminder of the ability of the particularly limited Paul to market himself, but Ennis saw the funny side of what he had been asked before making clear what he felt when – after almost instinctively scoffing – he said: “Jake Paul’s not a fighter for real. For sure, yes [I could beat him].”

Ennis was joined on Tuesday by his manager Everett McNeely; his father and trainer Derek “Bozy”, who off the back of Ennis’s success has become one of the world’s most sought-after trainers, wasn’t yet in town. The professional “Boots” Ennis, regardless, has decided to remain in Atlantic City from Tuesday until after his 34th fight, even though he is aware that his home is only in the region of an hour away by car. 

“I don’t care – I’m locked in, we’re ready to roll,” he similarly responded to one member of his promoter Matchroom’s social media team when they asked about the 30-year-old Stanionis’ absence, apparently in the hope that he would be critical. “I don’t care,” he then laughed

Ennis, by then, had finished his Q&A session, paused briefly to watch the highlights of his convincing victory in 2023 over Roiman Villa that were being shown, and then seamlessly found the net with the basketball he had picked up while the children and teenagers queued to use VR headsets with which they could box. He, once again, had succeeded in giving very little away. He wasn’t, however, shy when predicting that his 34th victory would come inside the distance on Saturday night.