LAS VEGAS – It’s rare for a promoter to pick against his fighter, but Bob Arum is brutally honest about Teofimo Lopez Jr.’s chances against Jaron Ennis.

Lopez defended his Ring and WBO junior welterweight titles Friday in New York against Arnold Barboza Jr. Last month, Ennis stopped Eimantas Stanionis with a career-best performance to become The Ring, WBA and IBF welterweight champion.

The former unified lightweight champion Lopez’s long-planned move to 147 pounds appears imminent, and his next quest for “The Takeover” campaign could go straight to the top of the ladder against Ennis, an opponent he’s been calling out for a considerable time.

The Ring was at Top Rank’s headquarters watching the Lopez-Barboza fight alongside the 93-year-old Hall of Fame promoter, and after the event concluded, Arum canvassed Lopez’s future.

“I think he's very much an underdog [against Ennis],” said Arum. “But that's why they do the fights … Teofimo is for the money, and you can't blame him. So his next fight will be for the biggest money fight for him, which is probably Ennis. Teofimo wants the money, and if he does, you don't hold him back. They are adults and they can make decisions. If the decision is for him to go to an Ennis fight, that's his decision, everybody goes along with him and that's the way it is.”

Arum wasn’t entirely impressed with Lopez’s performance on a night Ryan Garcia got dropped and lost to Rolando Romero, after his former foe Devin Haney notched a listless decision against Jose Ramirez.

“He did OK. He knew he was in with Barboza, who can't break an egg, but at least you saw his whole arsenal. He wasn't afraid to take a punch,” said Arum. “No real medals on him, he didn't fight a great fight. He should have been more aggressive.”

Lopez (22-1, 13 KOs) has been publicly beefing with career-long promoter Top Rank in recent months. In January, Lopez said Top Rank was “trying to f--- my life up. Literally, my career” as he turned down a fight against Subriel Matias.

Although Arum doesn’t like Lopez’s chances against Ennis, he feels confident that Lopez can get past Haney, Garcia and Romero.

“Those are not competitive fights for Teofimo,” said Arum.

Lopez is looking for Ennis to accept his challenge.

“I claimed who I wanna go after, and that’s Jaron Ennis,” Lopez said after beating Barboza. “Many people think I’m too small for that, but it’s not about who’s the smallest. It’s about who’s the smartest. And I think that I have all the tools to [claim] three divisions of the lineal world title.

“I have that champion’s mentality. If he’s a champion, like he says he is, and he got his first Ring magazine world title, I think that he’s definitely looking forward to defending it. I would hope so.”