Sometimes the most honest answer a fighter can give is about the scale, not the scorecards. That is what Zab Judah gave Mill City Boxing when a superchat put Jaron “Boots” Ennis versus Devin Haney in front of him — a question that started, notably, with Bill Haney having put Boots on his list.
Judah’s answer split cleanly by weight class. Any Ennis–Haney fight today, he said, has got to be at 154, because Boots does not fight at 147 anymore — and at 154 he made no pick at all, saying only: “Boots does good at 54, and I just can’t see Dev going to 54 right now with all the success and great things that he’s accomplishing right now.” But roll it back to 147 and Judah did pick a side: Haney. His reasoning was the drain — if Boots had to come back down to 147, he could be fatigued at that weight, and Judah would take Devin in that version of the fight. So the pick is real but conditional: Haney at 147, no call at 154, because that is the weight where the fight actually lives now.
The segment is short — under a minute before the conversation moves on — but the context around it matters. This is the same Bill Haney who, in the clip everybody passed around this week, was telling Shakur Stevenson to his face that Devin is the dream fight Shakur is scared to take. The Haney camp talks like matchmakers for the whole sport. Judah, a six-time world champion by his own description in this same video, talks like a man who has actually made weight: lists are cheap, divisions are real.
The rest of the appearance is vintage Judah. He saluted Gervonta Davis for keeping his name relevant while he is away from the ring, reacting to Tank’s post about Foster’s performance against Navarrete. And when a commenter floated Kid Austin as arguably better than Roberto Duran, Judah shut it down flat: the kid is good, but he is not better than Duran — “Roberto Duran was putting stuff to sleep. He was the hands of stone.”
Our take: Judah did not duck the Ennis–Haney question — he handicapped the version that could happen and refused the version that can’t. Haney has business at his own weight, Ennis has settled a division up, and until somebody crosses that gap, the 147 pick stays a hypothetical and this fight stays a list entry, not a matchup.
Video credit: Mill City Boxing.
