Eddie Hearn does not do small comparisons, and the one he just made about Jaron Ennis is about as big as they come.
Speaking on The Punch Podcast, the Matchroom promoter put the WBA and WBO super-welterweight champion alongside four of the finest fighters of the last fifty years.
Jaron Ennis, I’ve said it for a while now, I think that you are looking at the pound-for-pound number one in the sport. I think that he is Crawford, I think that he is Leonard, I think that he is Hearns, I think that he is that level, Pernell Whitaker. I think he is that good.
Thomas Hearns became boxing’s first five-division world champion in 1988 and beat Roberto Duran in two rounds. Sugar Ray Leonard matched the feat three days later and beat every one of his fellow Four Kings. Whitaker and Terence Crawford need no introduction either. Ennis is a two-division champion.
Hearn’s supporting evidence is recent.
The performance against Xander was unbelievable, the way that he come in. It’s the way that he fights, people criticise “Boots” sometimes because he gets hit a lot, he chooses to fight like that.
If you want, he can make it boring and box you for 12 rounds, but it’s not what he does and that is why he is one of the most exciting fighters on the planet.
Ennis is chasing the undisputed super-welterweight championship after beating Xander Zayas. A fight with IBF champion Josh Kelly is expected in December or early 2027.
