By Eóin Kennedy
It was looking like it was going to be a quiet week in the boxing world with only smaller scale shows coming up this weekend, but then Matchroom Boxing announced earlier today that they have signed Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis to a multi-fight promotional deal. In signing the IBF welterweight world champion, Eddie Hearn’s promotional outfit have just acquired the services of one of boxing’s hottest commodities, and now the question turns to who the Philadelphia fighter will defend his title against next. Now that Ennis has signed with Matchroom it does give us a clearer idea of who he may face when he does return to action; let’s look at the most likely candidates:
Conor Benn
Conor Benn quickly became boxing’s bad boy just over two years ago when he failed two drug tests for banned substances in the run up to his fight with Chris Eubank Jr. The saga that has ensued since the failed tests has been so exhaustively covered and has grown so boring to talk about that we’ll skip straight to the fact that regardless of whether you think he’s guilty or not, Benn is a Matchroom fighter and is licensed to fight in the USA. Of the welterweights in Hearn’s stable Benn is undoubtedly the most well known and probably the best also, given the slim pickings that Matchroom currently have at that weight class. The question is whether Hearn has also grown so dreary of the Benn/UKAD debacle that he’s ready to provide his English fighter as a sacrificial lamb in order to elevate his new and shiny American champion.
Cody Crowley
Hearn may look outside his current stable of fighters and there are a few likely options externally also. For a while now there has been murmurings of Cody Crowley’s IBF mandatory challenger status being activated and it had even been reported that the Canadian fighter had already signed a contract to fight Ennis. That may still be the case, but nothing has been confirmed if so. Crowley boasts an unbeaten record but when you scroll through his resume you quickly realize that it’s underwhelming, with his best victory probably coming over former world-title challenger Josesito López. Should he face off against Ennis on his Matchroom debut, fans would tolerate Crowley as an opponent due to his unbeaten record and mandatory status but expect him to be severely overmatched against the American fighter.
Egidijus Kavaliauskas
The Lithuanian fighter best known as ‘Mean Machine’ seems like a perfect fit for the job at hand. Matchroom have been long known to welcome new signings with a relatively easytouch (at least on a calculated level) in their home town. Very often this ‘easy-touch’ is an old war horse who’s been in the division a long time, has fought some big names and come up short, and is still fighting despite being beyond their sell-by-date. Mean Machine ticks every box here and the fact that he has two victories in his last two fights (over non-names in a two-year period), is enough for Hearn to roll him out and tell the world that he’s on an unstoppable comeback. I’mHearn also wouldn’t pass up the available sound bite that Mean Machine is the man that gave Terence Crawford his toughest fight. Low hanging fruit. Matchroom 101.
Michael McKinson
Michael McKinson may not be a name to get fan’s hearts racing as a ‘Boots’ Ennis opponent, but as far as first fights with a new promoter go, he’s another that could easily tickle Matchroom’s fancy. McKinson only has one loss in his career to date, and that came against Vergil Ortiz Jr who is one of the top young fighters in the sport. As well as the marketable record, McKinson does have a style that is technical, crafty, and very awkward to break down. Ortiz was able to close the distance to the English fighter and get a stoppage win when they faced one another, but McKinson has been on a four-fight winning streak since. Given that finding an elite opponent is considered out of the question for his bow with his new British promoter, don’t be surprised to see Ennis square of against McKinson.
