Jaron Ennis is returning to the Wells Fargo Center. 'Politics of boxing' keep it from being a bigger fight.

PHILADELPHIA — Eddie Hearn called Jaron Ennis last month, asking Philadelphia’s undefeated boxing star what he wanted to do. Ennis’ next fight, according to the International Boxing Federation, was to be a mandatory welterweight title defense against a challenger he easily outpointed less than two years ago in a dull bout not worthy of a rematch.

So Hearn, Ennis’ British-based promoter, asked Ennis (32-0, 29 knockouts) if he wanted to defend his title against Karen Chukhadzhian (24-2, 13 KOs) or vacate the 147-pound title and chase a bigger fight.

“He said, ‘If you want me to move up in weight, I’ll do it and vacate the belt,’ ” said Hearn, the chairman of Matchroom Boxing. “I was like, ‘Do you need to move up in weight?’ He said, ‘Physically, no.’ I said, ‘What is your dream?’ He said, ‘My dream is to unify the division and win the belts at welterweight.’ I was like, ‘That’s what we have to do.’ ”

That’s why Ennis, the city’s lone boxing world champion, is fighting a nondescript opponent on Nov. 9 at the Wells Fargo Center instead of the marquee match he hoped to score for his second South Philly fight in four months.

Ennis, nicknamed “Boots,” drew the city’s largest boxing crowd (14,119) since 1978 when he knocked out David Avanesyan in July. Avanesyan was a little-known fighter who was a late replacement after Ennis’ original opponent was not medically cleared.

The fans still came, even though Ennis was facing an overmatched opponent. So it was easy to imagine how big the crowd would be if Ennis was fighting another welterweight champion. Instead, he gets a rematch with Chukhadzhian.

“The politics of boxing can sometime deceive you,” Hearn said at a press conference Thursday.

After Chukhadzhian, the plan is for Ennis to return to the Wells Fargo Center for a third time in February or March for a welterweight unification fight. Brian Norman, the World Boxing Organization’s welterweight champ, is sidelined with a hand injury. World Boxing Council champion Mario Barrios defends his title a week after Ennis’ fight, and World Boxing Association champion Eimantas Stanionis has fought just once in the last two years.

A match with any of the champions would fulfill Ennis’ desire to land a big fight and become a unified champion. He has been a world champion for a year but is still looking for a high-profile opponent. For Ennis, the “next fight” always seems to be the “big fight.”

“He’s the star of the division,” said Hearn, who signed Ennis earlier this year. “He’s the only one who’s doing these kinds of numbers. Everyone is going to need him. But the problem is that he’s so good that you really have to pay up for these guys to fight him. Luckily, in Philadelphia we’re hitting those numbers.”

A unification fight next year would be Ennis’ welterweight farewell before moving to the 154-pound light-middleweight division.

“I feel like Boots is going to be a multi-weight world champion,” Hearn said. “But to leave a division without doing what you should have done there, that seems like a bit of a waste. That’s why I said to him, ‘Do you need to move up in weight?’ He’s a big guy. He said, ‘No, I don’t.’ Once he said that, I said, ‘We’re going to have to do this fight and then unify.’ ”

The biggest fight at 154 pounds is a bout against Terence Crawford, whom Ennis has been angling to meet for more than a year. But Crawford has his sights set on a megafight with Canelo Alvarez, a bout that could happen in May. For Ennis, a fight with Crawford will have to wait.

“Crawford just wants the biggest fights, and Crawford knows how good Boots is,” Hearn said. “But Boots is not yet Canelo Alvarez. The money to fight Boots, I think Crawford would think, ‘I’m not risking my belts and my legacy to get beat by Ennis unless it’s a load of money.’ That’s why you have to continue to build Boots, to unify the division, and make the fans call out for that fight so it can be a big pay-per-view fight or Saudi Arabia can make a big investment for that fight. Once the money is there, I think Terence will take the fight.”

Ennis’ July fight at the Wells Fargo Center seemed like a test to see if Philadelphia could still draw boxing crowds the way it did at the Spectrum. It was the first title fight in South Philly since 2003. Interest in the sport seemed tepid. But Ennis nearly packed the arena.

“I was surprised, if I’m honest,” said Hearn, who hoped to draw 8,000 fans in July for Ennis’ first fight in Philly since 2018. “It’s one of those cities where there hasn’t been a world championship fight in so long and hasn’t been a big fight. I said, ‘Why?’ Philadelphia is synonymous with boxing. Take away Rocky Balboa, and you produce some incredible champions over the years. People say, ‘It’s a fight city.’ It’s a sports city. I feel like with a fighter like Ennis, you have to be there. You have to be among it.”

Next month’s fight no longer seems to be a gauge of the city’s interest in boxing. Ennis, who graduated from Walter B. Saul High School in Philadelphia's Roxborough neighborhood and lives in Horsham, Pa., is a draw in his hometown. The tickets are selling near the pace they were for his summertime fight. The crowd should be just the same as it was in July. For Ennis, so should the quality of the opponent. He hoped this would be a bigger fight. Instead, he’ll wait again for the next one.

“I’m asking you to buy into the journey,” Hearn said. “This is the journey. We have to defend against this guy, and this time, we must make sure that he doesn’t hear the final bell. All right? That’s why I’m so pleased with the early numbers. People are on this journey with us. The city is on this journey with us. He knows he can’t afford to let this guy frustrate him again and run. He’s going to batter him. I think he’ll do it.”