Last week, Matchroom Boxing agreed to a multi-fight promotional deal with Jaron Ennis (31-0, 28KOs), one of boxing’s most talented stars. 

The unbeaten welterweight IBF world champion had found himself on the sidelines following his 10th-round stoppage win over Roiman Villa in July. He had become embroiled in management issues that forced him into inactivity. However, Ennis was elevated to world champion status following the IBF’s decision to strip then-undisputed champion Terence Crawford (40-0, 31KOs) of his IBF title in November. 

The signing of Ennis to Matchroom helps the British promotional entity fill the void in the United States left behind by Canelo Alvarez, who parted ways with the company to sign with Premier Boxing Champions in June of 2023 following the expiration of his promotional agreement with Matchroom. 

Before Ennis inked a promotional agreement with Matchroom and Eddie Hearn, the trainer of Mario Barrios, 28-2 (18KOs) Bob Santos, claimed that his fighter had verbally agreed to fight Ennis before the IBF champion decided to join Matchroom. 

Barrios, a former WBA 140lbs champion and current WBC interim welterweight ruler, returns as part of the undercard to Jaime Munguia’s undisputed title challenge against Canelo Alvarez on May 4 at the T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas. Barrios will face Fabian Andres Maidana, 22-2, (16 KOs), defending his interim title, which he collected in 2023 with a unanimous points win over Yordenis Ugas.

Despite Barrios currently continuing his preparations to face Maidana, Santos confirmed to Sean Zittel that Barrios would not hesitate to agree to fight Ennis again if an offer was presented to them to challenge for the IBF world title. 

“We were the frontrunners for the Boots fight. We agreed to fight him. They said, ‘Would you fight Boots? Nobody wants to fight Boots.’ I said, ‘We’ll fight Boots.’ I told everybody that,” Santos said on Zittel’s YouTube channel.

“We agreed to fight him [Ennis]. They [PBC] approached us and said, ‘Would you be willing to fight him?’ I told everybody, ‘Of course, we’ll fight him.’ Why wouldn’t we fight him?

Despite Barrios currently being signed to Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champion’s stable, Santos claims that Haymon would have no issue allowing Barrios to appear on a Matchroom Boxing promotion to face Ennis for his IBF title. 

“He [Ennis] went with DAZN now, but we’re with Al Haymon, and I know he’ll let us fight anybody, anytime, anywhere. Maybe that’s something that can be put together sometime with Boots,” Santos added. “But obviously, he took off with DAZN for whatever reason, so we’ll see. Boots, Crawford, any of those guys.”