During the post-fight press conference at the Barclays Center, Boots Ennis appeared at the dais to give his impression on his knockout win over Xander Zayas, where he goes from here, all while brushing off criticisms from Vergil Ortiz and Terence Crawford. Check out some excerpts below.
Boots on what was going through his mind during the back and forth action in the third round
“I was chilling. Cool, calm and collected…A little lazy on the inside, got caught with a good shot but I was cool…When it’s madness going on, I just get calm and just be patient.”
On how he viewed the fight
“Solid competition. Xander a great
fighter, I hope he’s okay. Whether he move up to 60 or stay at 54, I think he’ll be champion again.”
Bozy Ennis on getting on Boots after round 3
“He like to have fun, I got to calm him down sometimes. He get a little lazy, he lean back sometimes because it be easy. You can see like he love to fight, man. He can box. You can see first round, how many jabs [Zayas] got hit with. Then you throw the right hand behind it, then you throw the left hook behind it. He could’ve just kept on jabbing him. He like to play, he like to have fun. I always tell him to have fun doing it though, but get them out of there, though.”
Boots on Vergil Ortiz saying he KOs him
“[Laughs]. Why he didn’t take the fight in the beginning? Bro, he be talking. I’m trying to tell you, I’m really different. He going to see firsthand. Because he gets hurt, a lot! He flat-footed and he been dropped multiple times. When he get hit by me it’s going to be different.”
On how he would grade his performance against Zayas
“I would probably give myself like a C. I know I’m way better than that. Like a C+, I’m way better than that. I listened to the corner a little bit, not too much. They was telling me to do speed and I was one-shot popping. It’s the shots that you don’t see and I should’ve been using a little bit more speed but everything is going to be good. We going to go back to the lab and get ready and take over this division, sharpen up.”
On if he thinks the stoppage came at the right time
“I ain’t going to lie, I should’ve probably stopped him in like the fifth. He was taking a lot of punches and things like that. But, yeah, that’s about it.”
On Terence Crawford throwing some subtle shade at him right after the fight
“We ain’t worried about what he saying. We focused on the task at hand, taking over this division. We ain’t worried about no retired fighters.”
On his mindset after scoring an early knockdown
“The first knockdown I wasn’t really trying to rush it. I knew he a game fighter, solid fundamentals, he a solid fighter and he was champion for a reason. So you can’t just go in there, rush, and try to get the knockout. You to be patient and that’s what I did. But the second knockdown, I definitely thought he was gone.”
On those who criticize him for getting hit too easily
“I mean, you can say that but it’s me having little lazy moments and just not like being sharp like how I’m supposed to be and I got to get out of that habit. Little lazy moments, and we’re going to work on that in the gym and fix those things.”
