Negotiations taking place for Jaron Ennis to fight Eimantas Stanionis or Mario Barrios

GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA – Eddie Hearn is determined to deliver a unification contest with either Eimantas Stanionis or Mario Barrios for Jaron Ennis by the end of April.

Ennis is widely recognised as the world’s leading welterweight, and having resisted a lucrative offer to fight Vergil Ortiz in February at 154lbs, Matchroom’s Hearn is under pressure to secure for one of his finest fighters the nature of occasion that can prove similarly positive for Ennis’ career.

The 27-year-old Ennis was frustrated by the IBF when in November they forced him to defend their title against Karen Chukhadzhian in a rematch that had minimal appeal. Hearn has been attempting to build Ennis as an attraction in his home city of Philadelphia; he will again likely fight on the east coast of the US, but it is a unification contest his promoter believes he needs to continue to enhance his profile ahead of what he hopes will prove considerably more lucrative dates.

“He’s gonna fight in March or April,” the promoter told BoxingScene. “In Philadelphia, or potentially Atlantic City, or Atlanta. And we’re trying to make the unification fight. Obviously there’s Barrios [the WBC champion] – we have to see what happens with Conor [Benn, one of Barrios’ potential opponents] – and there’s also Stanionis, which we’ve been talking to [promoters] PBC about. But we turned down opportunities for Jaron, based on us delivering a unification fight. So that’s the pressure that we’re under, and that’s what he wants to do.”

Hearn is in Australia’s Gold Coast for Jai Opetaia-David Nyika, and he continued: “I think that because the last fight – I wouldn’t say [Ennis] underperformed – I’m hoping that people are looking at it going, ‘We can beat him’. 

“Whereas before it was just like, ‘Give me a pay day, and I’ll fight Boots’. Now it’s like, ‘Maybe we can beat him’.

“Barrios or Stanionis. [WBO champion Brian] Norman’s out, because he wants a warm-up fight. So it’s Barrios or Stanionis – two brilliant fights. Either of those would be fantastic.”