Jaron “Boots” Ennis will be in line to fight Vergil Ortiz in the first quarter of 2026 if he secures victory in his junior middleweight debut this Saturday, according to Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn.
Ennis (34-0, 30 KO), 28, boxed Uisma Lima (14-1, 10 KO) in his first 154-pound fight at the Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia after climbing to No. 1 in the ESPN welterweight rankings.
Coming off a sixth-round TKO victory over Eimantas Stanionis in a world title unification fight in April, Ennis is looking to put on a stellar performance against little-known Lima, Angola, Portugal, in front of his hometown fans to catapult him into bigger fights.
Since the interim WBA title is at stake, Saturday’s winner will have a chance to fight WBA junior middleweight world champion Abass Barou (17-1, 9 KO) from Germany.
However, Hearn wants to make a bigger fight for Boots against Ortiz (23-0, 21 KO), who is scheduled to defend his interim WBC junior middleweight title against Erickson Lubin on November 8.
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“We want the biggest fights after Saturday, and for me the one that makes the most sense and that has been negotiated is Vergil Ortiz,” Hearn told ESPN. “We sat in a room with Golden Boy and DAZN, worked out a deal structure, and as part of his contract extension with us, Boots signed a contract for this fight with Ortiz.
“Eric Gomez [President of Golden Boy Promotions] he actually called me yesterday and said, “We want to do this fight, but we want to get our fight.” [vs. Lubin] first they will withdraw, and then we want this fight in the first quarter of 2026, so at the moment I take their word for it. We’ll see.
“I think it’s one of the best fights in boxing, I really do.”
Hearn expects Ennis to outperform at junior middleweight and says the Philadelphia boxer is ready to fight any world champion in 2026.
Ortiz, of Texas, and WBC junior middleweight world champion Sebastian Fundora (23-1-1, 15 KOs), of California, are ranked first and second, respectively, at 154 pounds in the latest ESPN rankings.
However, Hearn believes Ennis will simply move through the junior middleweight division and could even compete at super middleweight.
“The most significant thing is to get a shot at the 154-pound world title, and that could come [WBO] Xander Zayas, [IBF] Bakhram Murtazaliev, [WBC] Sebastian Fundora, WBA champion Abass Baraou or WBC interim champion Vergil Ortiz,” Hearn told ESPN.
“He’s going to be someone else at 154 pounds – and I don’t know how he got to 147 pounds. He could easily fight at 168 pounds, and I think middleweight is the division where you’re going to see him at his best.”
I believe Boots is the future No. 1 in the sport in weight-for-pound and the natural successor to Terence Crawford. We saw what he can do in Stanionis against the number 2 welterweight in the world, now I want to see him fight Ortiz, Murtazaliev, Zayas, and then I want to see him move up to 160 pounds and fight guys like Carlos Adames and Erislandy Lara. There will be at least a four-time world champion in my weight class, my opinion.
“At 147 pounds you saw a worn-out fighter but still phenomenal. The strange thing about boxing is that when a fighter goes up in weight, it’s still difficult for him to make weight. Everyone holds the weight tight and that’s an example that even at 154 pounds Boots will make it easier for him than at 147 pounds, but he’ll still be tight. He’ll do fine, but it’ll always be tight until he gets to a higher weight class.” “weight”.
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