LAS VEGAS – Thomas Dulorme didn’t dismiss Jaron Ennis’ obvious abilities.

The veteran welterweight contender simply pointed out that the gifted Philadelphia fighter still has to establish himself against proven opponents before Dulorme will believe that Ennis is the future of their division. Dulorme considers himself to be the best opponent of Ennis’ career and promised to test Ennis in a 10-round bout Showtime will televise Saturday night from Mandalay Bay’s Michelob ULTRA Arena.

“Everybody’s pushing him and he is a great fighter,” Dulorme told BoxingScene.com. “But they’re making him into something bigger than he really is, because he has faced absolutely nobody in the division. I’m gonna push him and we’re gonna see if he can swim.”

The 31-year-old Dulorme (25-5-1, 16 KOs) has lost back-to-back, 12-round unanimous decisions to WBA world welterweight champion Jamal James (27-1, 12 KOs) and emerging contender Eimantas Stanionis (13-0, 9 KOs, 1 NC). Dulorme tested Stanionis, though, which enabled the native Puerto Rican to have his fight with Ennis rescheduled.

Ennis (27-0, 25 KOs, 1 NC) and Dulorme were supposed to fight last December 19, but Dulorme tested positive for COVID-19 while training. Ennis instead settled for a no-contest with Chris van Heerden because the South African southpaw sustained a nasty gash on his forehead that prohibited van Heerden (28-2-1, 12 KOs, 1 NC) from continuing late in the first round of a fight Showtime televised from Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.

The 24-year-old Ennis returned to the ring April 10, when he dominated former IBF junior welterweight champ Sergey Lipinets.

Ennis dropped Lipinets twice – once in the fourth round and again in the sixth round. Referee Arthur Mercante Jr. immediately waved an end to their scheduled 12-round bout as soon as Ennis’ vicious left uppercut knocked Lipinets flat on his back in the sixth round.

Dulorme wasn’t overly impressed with Ennis’ annihilation of Lipinets (16-2-1, 12 KOs) because Ennis enjoyed such a considerable size advantage.

“The thing is that Lipinets is a 135-pounder or a 140-pound fighter,” Dulorme said. “On fight night, Ennis was probably 170 pounds in the ring, fighting a guy who was around 150. And Lipinets was landing some clean shots on him, but he’s just not big enough and it wasn’t doing anything to [Ennis].”

Dulorme moved up from the junior welterweight division as well, but the 5-feet-10 Dulorme stands three inches taller than Lipinets and has fought within the welterweight division for almost five years.

“Ennis is a good fighter,” Dulorme said. “You can see he has a lot of talent, and he showed it that night against a fighter [Lipinets] who belongs in another division.”

Ennis-Dulorme is the co-feature of a “Showtime Championship Boxing” tripleheader that’ll begin at 10 p.m. EDT.

Minneapolis’ James will defend his WBA world welterweight championship versus Russian contender Radzhab Butaev (13-0, 10 KOs, 1 NC) in the 12-round main event. The broadcast will begin with a 10-round lightweight bout in which the Dominican Republic’s Michel Rivera (21-0, 14 KOs) will battle Argentina’s Jose Matias Romero (24-1, 8 KOs).

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.