Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis remains on the hunt for his next opponent, with a number of fighters targeting the IBF welterweight king.
‘Boots’ made the latest defence of his world welterweight title last month, defeating Karen Chukhadzhian for the second time, following their first meeting which took place in January 2023.
The 27-year-old was close to agreeing a deal to face WBC interim super welterweight champion Vergil Ortiz, until Ennis pulled the plug on negotiations, stating he wanted to remain at 147lbs.
Top Rank head, Bob Arum, then disclosed that his fighter and reigning WBO super lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez was in talks to face ‘Boots’.
However, promoter Eddie Hearn spoke to FightHub TV, revealing that Ennis has ‘halted’ negotiations for a fight against Lopez to prioritise a unification fight at welterweight over anything else.
“There was definitely conversations between Matchroom and Top Rank on that, some numbers were discussed.
We had to kind of halt those because our strict instructions from Ennis are ‘I want to unify’, and if I can’t unify I will either move to 154lbs to fight Ortiz, or potentially we could fight Teofimo Lopez.”
Hearn then emphasised Ennis’ desire to secure a unification fight for himself in the near future.
“All he wants to do is unify, so we’re gonna exhaust those conversations with the champions.
Whatever happens you will see Ennis either in a unification or a massive fight next.”
The next chapter in the exciting career of ‘Boots’ remains unclear, but all eyes remain on him to be involved in a huge fight at some point in the new year and cement himself as a major figure in the sport.
