ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey – It appears as though another undefeated welterweight knockout artist in his mid-20s must, at the very least, move up to the junior middleweight division due to the damage making the 147-pound limit has done to his body.

Whereas Vergil Ortiz Jr. clearly has some difficult decisions to make after suffering another health scare last week, Jaron Ennis is completely confident that he can remain a welterweight for the foreseeable future.

A day after Ortiz’s fight with Eimantas Stanionis was postponed for the third time, the 5-foot-10 Ennis stepped on the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board’s scale at 145½ pounds Friday afternoon, a full 1½ pounds beneath his division’s limit. It marked the second straight fight for which the 26-year-old Ennis came in at 145½ pounds.

“I can make this weight as long as I want,” Ennis said after his 10th-round knockout of Roiman Villa on Saturday night at Boardwalk Hall’s Adrian Phillips Theater. “You know, I weighed 145.5 and I wasn’t sucked down, drained. I ate the night before. I woke up [Friday] morning, drunk some water and [ate] a little bit and, you know, I make ’47 easy. And I rehydrate back up good and I be healthy and strong. So, it’s no problem making ’47 for me.”

Ennis (31-0, 28 KOs, 1 NC) seemed very much healthy and strong while he picked apart Venezuela’s Villa (26-2, 24 KOs) throughout their fight for Ennis’ IBF interim welterweight title. A patient Ennis eventually knocked out Villa with a brutal left-right combination that knocked him down during the 10th round of their “Showtime Championship Boxing” main event.

The versatile Ennis’ intelligence, speed and power have enabled him to knock out 20 of his last 21 foes. The Philadelphia native considered Ortiz one of his most appealing potential opponents, particularly if Ortiz (19-0, 19 KOs) would have beaten Lithuania’s Stanionis (14-0, 9 KOs, 1 NC) on Saturday night at AT&T Center in San Antonio, but Ennis expressed concern for Ortiz’s health following the latest incident that left Ortiz in a hospital.

“I hope he get better,” Ennis told BoxingScene.com before he dominated Villa. “I wish him luck. His main focus right now should just be getting himself together, you know, getting healthy. I feel like it’s serious. I can’t say what I would do because I’m not in that situation. But if I was him, my main focus would be getting healthy and not worry about fighting right now, at this moment, and just get to a hundred percent. I feel like maybe he was rushing his recovery. At the end of the day, like I said before, his health is more important than anything.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.