Philly Plain Dealer

Atlantic City seems to radiate this strange energy, reminiscent of a former pageant queen now working the register at a seedy liquor store, still wearing mascara, still insisting she could’ve gone all the way¹. The casinos still flash and spin and the boardwalk still creaks under the weight of brackish air and compunction. Outside of a vape shop, a disheveled woman in desperate need of an expectorant discharges a wad of phlegm onto the ground.

It’s easy to forget that Atlantic City used to be the crown jewel of boxing not so long ago. 

A town that once hosted fighters like Holyfield, Tyson, and Hopkins now feels like a forgotten monument to its own past². That changed, at least for a few hours, on Saturday night when Jaron “Boots” Ennis stepped into the ring at the historic Boardwalk Hall and made it feel, briefly, like the center of the boxing universe once again. The crowd was full of vim and unmistakably Philadelphian in origin. They showed up not just to watch a fight, but to witness an ascension. 

The moment Boots emerged (flanked by Tyrese Maxey, I might add), he was accompanied by the unmistakable tolling of a graveyard bell that usually denotes the coming of the Undertaker. In that moment, Boardwalk Hall—a venue that once hosted The Beatles—felt like it had time traveled³. The place didn’t just get loud, it erupted. 

His opponent was Eimantas Stanionis, a rugged, steely-eyed Lithuanian known for his durability and no-nonsense fighting style. Despite Stanionis’s last fight being 11 months ago, Stanionis showed up with very little rust. He came in undefeated, with a reputation for walking through punches and making opponents work for every inch. If Ennis wanted to prove that he belonged among the elite at 147, this was the test that couldn’t be aced on talent alone.

From the opening bell, it was clear that Ennis wasn’t here to win on points, he was here to make a statement. Every punch Ennis threw seemed to explode outwards, landing with absolute conviction⁴. Round six saw Ennis connect with multiple heavy body blows, the kind of thudding systemic punishment to the abdomen that built over time like water wearing down stone. Following the bell, Stanionis slumped in his corner, shook his head, and the fight was over. Ennis, raised in Germantown and molded by the streets of Philadelphia, didn’t just win… he arrived, emphatically.

The win saw Boots both defend the IBF title and win the WBA and Ring Magazine titles. Also: don’t ask me to explain the fractal insanity that is boxing’s belt system. Just know that this fight was an important one. The kind that moves you from “potential” to “problem” in the eyes of any coach with a welterweight worth protecting. There are rumblings that his next fight could be against a marquee name like Terrance Crawford or Errol Spence Jr, and when/if that happens, Boots graduates from barbershop legend to SportsCenter regular.

There was something fitting about this fight taking place in Atlantic City, a place with just enough rust and history to mirror his own journey. Philly doesn’t always get its coronations televised, but on Saturday night, in a creaking old arena by the sea, one of its prodigal sons stood all the way up, and everyone took notice. 

Footnotes:

¹ Interestingly, these pageant-queen days are memorialized within Disney World’s Boardwalk Inn. There, the Atlantic City of the early 20^th century is duplicated in uncanny fashion: striped awnings, saltwater taffy, barbershop quartets, etc. There are no people in pajama pants trying to bum a cigarette, no soot-stained casinos, no stores selling shirts of Rick and Morty drinking lean. It’s a theme park version of a dream that used to be real. Boardwalk Inn isn’t just a hotel, it’s a eulogy in pastels. 

²Atlantic City really was a boxing Mecca, especially in the 80s and 90s. Casinos used to pour money into fight purses and pay to host mega cards (i.e Holyfield vs Foreman in 1991). Eventually, places like Vegas and Dubai took over. Consequently, Atlantic City fell into the state of liminality that it finds itself in to this day. 

³Boardwalk Hall was built in 1929 and once held the tile of largest clear-span wooden domed structure in the world. In its heyday, it hosted everyone from the Rolling Stones to Miss America. Fascinatingly, it also houses the world’s largest musical instrument, a massive pipe organ, which has since fallen into disrepair, and serves as a metaphor of the city itself. 

⁴Ennis threw 424 punches to Stanionis’ 185. Of these 424, 81 landed.