"Boots" Ennis to Take on Josh Kelly in 2027 unification fight

While both "Boots" Ennis and Josh Kelly will both enter the ring as world champions, they are not regarded as equal in quality. Boots holds the WBO and WBO titles against Kelly's single, IBF strap, but the bookmakers do not need to count belts to decide who is the favourite.

Ennis is widely regarded as one of the most talented men in all of boxing and a future hall-of-famer. Josh is a solid and worthy champion, but does not possess the stand-out skills of someone like "Boots."

For Josh to win, expecially in Ennis' home country, it would be considered a major upset, and would have to go down as one of the greatest achievements ever by a British boxer. 

"Boots" is undefeated in 36 contests with 32 of those victories coming by knockout. Josh has a more modest 19 wins on his record and one defeat, by stoppage to David Avanesyan. The Brit has managed to stop 9 of his opponents, so it's clear that Ennis will be bringing the superior firepower.

Fans of Kelly, of which there are many, will take heart from the fact that he has snapped the unbeaten runs of highly ranked opponents, Bakhram Murtazaliev for the title and Caoimhin Agyarko in his first defence. They will be hoping that Ennis will be the third undefeated man in a row to fall to the Brit.

The Murtazaliev fight is a good showcase of the heart and skill of Josh Kelly against top-level opposition. The Russian is a murderous puncher, and yet it was he who found himself taking a count, after Josh caught him with a perfectly-timed jab as he was coming in in the 4th round. But Bakhram evened things up with a left hook in the 9th that decked Kelly and forced him to backpedal and hold for the remainder of the round, while his head cleared.

While Murtazaliev is good, "Boots" is on a completely different level in terms of his speed and reflexes, and should be able to penetrate Kelly's guard more frequently. 

"Boots" can be hit and hurt, as we saw against Xanda Zayas, but the way the American raised his game and put Zayas down in response, will be sobering viewing for Kelly's team as they analyse Ennis's game for weaknesses.

A boxer of Kelly's pedigree cannot be dismissed as a no-hoper, but it's really hard to imagine him causing an upset, unless "Boots" is having a serious off day.

Both boxers are promoted by Matchroom's Eddie Hearn, who will no doubt be delighted by either man winning.