Germantown’s ‘Brickyard’ shaped Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis into a world champion boxer. He wants to give back.

The boxing ropes were flimsy enough that a fighter would fall through if they leaned on them. The canvas had holes in it, the gym didn’t have heat, and there was that one night when the power went out.

“We sparred with flashlights,” Jaron “Boots” Ennis said. “You couldn’t see.”

It was where Ennis, one of Philadelphia’s two current boxing champions, learned to fight. His father’s gym in the basement of a Germantown church was aptly called “The Dungeon.” There was nothing flashy about the place, but it was perfect, and it shaped Ennis into a world champion.

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“This is the place that made me the person I am today,” Ennis said, standing last month outside the door that once led to the basement gym of the Holy Temple of Deliverance on Seymour Street.

Ennis (33-0, 29 knockouts) defends his IBF welterweight title on Saturday against Eimantas Stanionis (15-0, nine KOs) at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall in the main event on DAZN. He is one of boxing’s biggest stars and plans to win every title at 147 pounds. Before that, he was a kid who fell in love with boxing at a dungeon in Germantown.

“You don’t need all that flashy stuff,” said Ennis’ brother, Derek, who was a pro boxer. “When I was coming up, all the people who had the good gyms with the heat, they couldn’t really fight. They didn’t know about the grind. We would go there and be like ‘Wait, they got heat?’ ”

Ennis, 27, has fought all over the country and is known by boxing fans around the world. He was on the cover this week of a prominent British boxing magazine, is under contract with one of the sport’s biggest promoters, and brought boxing back to the Wells Fargo Center last summer. He is a star.

Yet it still meant something years ago when he saw a video of everyone gathered outside on Ashmead Street in Germantown watching his fight on a movie theater-sized screen. Yes, Ennis is a world champion. But he’s also the champion for the Brickyard, the Germantown neighborhood where he grew up.

“Everyone around here is family. We’re not related by blood, but we’re related,” said Stefon Jackson, who grew up in the Brickyard and played professional basketball overseas. “Boots is a role model for the kids. He gives them hope, like they can do it too. A lot of the little kids are boxing because of Boots. We’re proud of him.”

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Ennis’ parents moved to Northeast Philadelphia when he was young, but he was always on Ashmead Street, where his grandmother lived. Dorothy Ennis taught her grandson how to play cards, sewed his boxing outfits when he was an amateur, and passed on wisdom when they chatted on the front porch.

Ennis lived there every summer and played manhunt and step ball on a street always filled with kids. There was always something to do on Ashmead Street. Plus, it was close to The Dungeon.

Dorothy Ennis died in 2020, but the family refused to sell the house. Grandma’s house is a legacy, Ennis said. It’s not for sale.

“This is where I’m from,” Ennis said. “This was home.”

Ennis still plays basketball every summer at the Wister Playground, and his “Young Bull” squad has beaten the “Old Heads” for two straight years. He gives out backpacks to Brickyard kids before school starts and used to host a neighborhood cookout before the crowd grew so big that police shut it down. The world champ never forgot where he came from.

“We had this street looking like South Street,” Ennis said.

Ennis and his brothers, Derek and Farrah, became professional boxers, but he saw many people from the Brickyard who didn’t make it out of the neighborhood.

The Brickyard, Ennis said, shaped him into the boxer who trains three times a day. Maybe he would still have that work ethic if he grew up in Delaware County or South Jersey, but Ennis is glad he’s from Ashmead Street.

“Everyone knows where the Brickyard is,” Jackson said. “You have to be a dog to live around here. No softies.”

Bozy Ennis would get to The Dungeon early in the winter, turn on the kerosene heater, and try to make the gym a little more comfortable for the kids who boxed every afternoon.

“We would be sparring with hoodies and sweatsuits on until the kerosene heater turned on,” Derek Ennis said.

Ennis’ father didn’t charge anyone — he just wanted to give kids a place to go. His sons fell in love with boxing in that basement, as “Boots” used to sit in a stroller and punch the bag while his older brothers trained. The Dungeon gave them everything they needed. They just had to be alert when they left.

“We would come out at 7 or 8 o’clock at night, and we would look up and see three shadows walking across the roof,” Ennis said. “Big raccoons.”

Ennis is planning to open his own gym later this year in Germantown, not far from Ashmead Street. It’ll be more than a ring and some heavy bags, as the champ wants his gym to be a place for the neighborhood, just like that church basement.

“I know there’s a lot of talent in the hood, and I want to give them a different outlook,” Ennis said. “You don’t have to be out here selling drugs or trying to be a gangster and do what you see in [the video game Grand Theft Auto]. You don’t have to be a boxer, but come here and take yourself away from the streets.”

Ennis said his gym will be a modern version of The Dungeon. The ropes will be stiff, the ring won’t have holes, and the lights will stay on. But the spirit will be the same.

“There might be some raccoons,” Ennis said jokingly. “You don’t need the flashiness. The flash doesn’t get you anywhere. I feel like it’s better when you come from this. Basically nothing. It makes me want to go back. This place turned me into a monster.”

A win on Saturday night should position Ennis for an even bigger fight later this year. If so, he’ll train for that fight at his own gym in his old neighborhood. The Brickyard made him into a world champion, and now he hopes to do the same for someone else.

“The city needs this a lot,” Ennis said. “I feel like if the city had more community clubs, the streets would be a lot better. Kids just need to see that there’s other things to do. You don’t need to be out here doing nonsense. I’m trying to make it a community thing. Basically, show everyone that I’m still here.”