Eddie Hearn is open to matching Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis against the aging ex-champions Jermell Charlo and Errol Spence in 2026. He predicts that they will have a high “number” that they would be asking for to face ‘Boots’ (35-0, 31 KOs), because they really don’t want that loss on their records.
Charlo & Spence on the Radar
Spence (28-1, 22 KOs) is the least likely option for WBA interim junior middleweight champion Ennis, because he hasn’t fought since his ninth-round TKO loss to Terence Crawford on July 29, 2024. It would take a lot of bravery on the 35-year-old Spence’s part to jump straight into a fight against ‘Boots’ after a long layoff.
Hearn’s first choice for Ennis’ next fight in 2026 would be against one of these world champions at 154:
- Sebastian Fundora – WBC
- Abass Baraou – WBA
- Xander Zayas – WBO
- Bakhram Murtazaliev – IBF
If Hearn can’t get one of those fights, he’ll aim for a “marquee” fight against Vergil Ortiz Jr., the WBC interim 154-lb champion.
Jermell: Two Years of Rust
“The key to ‘Boots’ is the legacy, the championship, and that’s the belt-holders,” said Eddie Hearn to Brian Custer’s channel on YouTube. “So, you’ve got Fundora, Zayas, which is a great fight. You’ve got Murtazaliev. You’ve got Abass Baraou, who just won the WBA title. But then you’ve got the other guys that don’t have a belt, but are a marquee fight. Vergil Ortiz, Errol Spence, [Jermell] Charlo’s name came up the other day as well.
Setting up a fight against the 35-year-old inactive former undisputed junior middleweight champion Jermell (35-2-1, 19 KOs) would result in Ennis receiving a lot of criticism from boxing fans. It would look like Ennis is raiding the old folks’ home, wheeling out a victim from the infirmary to pad his record with.
Charlo needs to show that he’s still capable of fighting after two years of inactivity and three years since his last win. He looked so utterly awful in the non-effort he put in his last fight against Canelo Alvarez on September 30, 2023.
Getting a fight against Baraou would likely be the easiest for Hearn for ‘Boots,’ but it wouldn’t create nearly as much interest as it would if he matched him against one of the other belt-holders.
“You Can Imagine the Number”
“Errol Spence and Charlo, you can imagine the number they’re going to ask for in the fight because they don’t really want that fight on their resume,” said Hearn.
To bring in Spence or Jermell, Hearn couldn’t afford to be miserly and tight-fisted with the money. He would have to dig deep to tempt one of those fighters. If Turki Alalshikh doesn’t get involved, which he likely wouldn’t, it would come down to Hearn.
