Ortiz got stung but besides that he fought well. He has good handspeed and power. Crawford’s going to get old before getting a really big fight if he’s not careful.
Ortiz is good enough that he compelled @valdosta to pop in and make his once in every 100 years appearance at Fightbeat. How are you old friend? Still posting at BF?
If I were to group the division into tiers, if have Crawford, Spence and Ennis in tier one. Maybe Pacquiao, as well. Then in tier two, you'd see Ortiz, Ugas, Porter, DSG and maybe Mikey and Thurman. Then I'd have Kavaliauskas, in a tier below them. Is that overrating him?
Oh I agree completely with your assessment. Rereading your initial post, I misinterpreted the ''we all know how good Kavialauskas is'' part
I'm just watching some Ennis fights, and my God is he something special. I really can't wait to see him step up.
Boots checks all the boxes in terms of having extreme physical talent and technical skill. He obviously has high IQ, and best of all, he's 100% dedicated to the sport and doesn't hang around a crew of knuckleheads to take him off the path. He seems to be around his dad and his brothers most of the time.
now and then. Life is busy these days. I actually like Ennis more than Ortiz but I think he’s going to be ducked. Ortiz is a solid fighter though.
Ennis reminds me a bot of Spence the first time i saw him, against lo greco. Hopefully, he'll maintain that aggressive, takes no prisonner style when he goes up in classes, unlike spence who has turned more into a boxer No disrespect to him, hes still an incredible fighter, but o tought he would be a bit better than that
Ennis is absolutely the most talented fighter at the weight IMO. Exceptionally fast hands, very flexible and agile with massive power. I think the way he stopped Juan Carlos Abreu shows he's a genuine banger. He's very fluid, very comfortable in the ring and is very well-rounded offensively. I don't actually think he's a paradigm of offensive skill like, say, Lomachenko, but I do like his directional feints and how he puts shots together. He knows exactly how to get around a guard, and like Inoue, he seems to be able to find his fight ending punch at any angle. The fact he can do everything offensively from both stances is majorly impressive too. I really liked his overhand right and uppercuts in one of the fights I watched recently (can't remember which). Very short and explosive. He's a master defensively, though. Takes special reflexes to successfully pull off neck rolls over and over again. He has great 'eyes'. He sees what's coming, and he knows distance so well. Just being able to intercept and react to punches almost immediately is an underrated skill for a defensive fighter. His active guard relies on this skill massively, and it's extremely effective. I think the most important thing to note, is that he's a defensive master, yes, but he isn't trying to be Floyd Mayweather. Which is very refreshing.
I really liked his straight left to the body against lipinets. Really broke it down with it. It's not an easy punch to pull cause the angle make it hard to land it with authority, but he has the speed, power and snap to pull it off. I think hell go as far as his chin will take him, and if he has a good one, he's not only a sure fire future ww champ, he'll probably win a belt in a few other division
Boots is faster, and more athletic than Spence ever was. That's the one observation we always made about Spence - he has decent quickness, but lacks great speed.