Young welterweight star Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis welcomed a newcomer to the Matchroom team, Shakur Stevenson, this week after he signed with Eddie Hearn’s promotional squad in a two-fight deal.
Hearn’s Vision: Building Global Stars
Boots (32-0, 29 KOs) recently signed with Hearn’s Matchroom last April, and now Shakur has joined the growing company. Hearn wants to turn both guys into global stars, but it will require a lot of work because both are avoided.
Hearn believes Shakur is unbeatable at 135 and feels the same way about Boots Ennis in his weight class at 147. Boots is the master of all he surveys at 147 but with no real challenges to his Kingship. That’s the one problem Ennis faces. Shakur is three fights away from becoming the king at 135.
It’s hard to believe Hearn has Shakur and Boots signed to his Matchroom company. He’s slowly putting together a dream team. Gervonta Davis, Devin Haney, and Ryan Garcia are the only younger stars missing.
P4P Greatness 🔥
Welcome to the team, @ShakurStevenson 👊 @JaronEnnis pic.twitter.com/AKVlh3yeDJ
— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) August 24, 2024
Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) is defending his WBC lightweight title against Joe Cordina on October 12th in the first of his two-fight deal on the Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol undercard in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Stevenson’s Upcoming Fights
This is a rare undercard placement for Shakur, but likely the last we’ll see. His next fight will be against William Zepeda in February, and then potentially Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis in the summer of 2025. If Shakur runs the table winning those fights, he will be one of the biggest stars in the sport.
It would be great to one day have Shakur and Boots Ennis share the same card, but it that may be difficult to do if they keep winning. Hearn is working on setting up a unification fight for Boots at 147 with his goal of becoming the undisputed champion.
Eddie feels confident that Boots would beat former undisputed champion Terence Crawford, but the aging ex-four-belt champion isn’t interested in fighting the young lion.
