Bernard Hopkins wants to see Jaron Ennis tested by another of the world’s leading welterweights.

“Boots” Ennis was recently described by his new promoter, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom, as “the best fighter from Philadelphia since Bernard Hopkins.” He will fight in his home city for the first time since 2018 when he makes the first defence of his IBF title against Canada’s Cody Crowley, 31.

Ennis has long been recognised as the likely successor to Terence Crawford at the top of the 147-pound weight division, but though he has won all 31 of his fights – 28 by knockout – he has yet to fight another of the elite.

Hopkins, despite acknowledging the 26-year-old’s significant potential, is eager to see him fight the very best to determine just how much of that potential will become greatness. 

“He’s impressed me,” said Hopkins, an all-time-great middleweight. “I just need to see him impress me with somebody you and me both know. I need to see him get in the ring with some of the top two or three that’s in that weight division, and then I’m extremely impressed. 

“I’m impressed that he has skills, but I’m not surprised – he’s from Philadelphia. But to impress me you have to beat someone that I’m impressed by. That’s not easy, to convince people with the mindset like myself, because I know for a fact – there’s levels to everything, and let’s wait and see when that level comes, ‘cause I’m anxious to see him fight someone that me and you can say, ‘Wow’, that was a great performance, or, ‘He failed the test’.

“You know the names in that weight division. Who would you like to see him fight?” 

BoxingScene responded by suggesting Crawford, Errol Spence or Eimantas Stanionis, and Hopkins responded: “I’d start with those three. That’s a start. I’m not the smartest person in the world, so that’s why I asked you, but I’d like to see him – the names you just mentioned. 

“I understand journalism to a point – people ask questions ‘cause they want to see your response.  But it’s a wasted conversation, ‘cause you know who he need to fight, and hopefully beat, to be able to say he’s a guy that you gotta go through, just like the guy that he had to go through to be who he is. This is a sport in a game of who can kill the lion that’s running the show.”

Ennis has spoken of his desire to fight regularly in what, historically, is one of America’s leading fight cities, and Hearn and the fighter’s father and trainer Derek “Bozy” Ennis of the significance fighting in Philadelphia can build.

“If you’re the best in a division, you’re the best in that division,” said Hopkins, of Golden Boy Promotions. “If he fights here, if he’s from here, obviously it gives a boost, but it doesn’t say ‘East Coast is back on board now, like the Mike Tyson era, or the Bernard Hopkins era, or the Meldrick Taylor era’. 

“What it says is that boxing, on the East Coast, because an East Coast fighter demands that the fights be on the East Coast ‘cause he’s from the East Coast – would that be a shot in the arm for Atlantic City, New York City, and other big cities? Yes. But in the same token, those two fighters that’s fighting Saturday night are not from the East Coast. They are not from here. They might not even have their amateur fights here before. 

“But the same energy, and the same demand of wanting to see it and buy it and come and get autographs… boxing doesn’t discriminate where you live at or what state you at. Boxing is boxing. People will get on the bus; they will get on the train; they will get on the plane, and they will go and see a good fight.”