Plenty of praise and plaudits continue to pile up as Jaron Ennis readies for his junior middleweight debut against Uisma Lima on Saturday in Philadelphia.

His promoter Eddie Hearn believes "Boots" Ennis will go on a hellacious run and supersede Terence Crawford, Oleksandr Usyk and Naoya Inoue to have the unofficial title as the world's best fighter.

"Honestly, the word out of camp is that, if you thought Boots was good at 147, wait until you see him at 154," Hearn told The Ring.

"Jaron Ennis is the pound-for-pound No. 1 in waiting. I'm not talking about three years, I'm talking about 12 months. I think he's going to go through the division. Move up to 160, become a three-weight world champion. I think he's the guy that replaces Terence Crawford. I think he's that good."

Ennis (34-0, 30 KOs) would certainly need to fight Vergil Ortiz, The Ring's No. 1 at 154, as well as reigning titleholders Sebastian Fundora, Bakhram Murtazaliev to raise his stock into the top 10 of the pound-for-pound list.

Ennis' welterweight run culminated in April with a sixth-round stoppage win during a IBF/WBA title unification against Eimantas Stanionis, claiming the Ring title, too.

Between winning the interim title and being elevated to full champion, Ennis made four IBF defenses during his 147-pound reign, but two decision wins against Karen Chukhadzhian and stoppages against David Avanesyan and Roiman Villa did little for his legacy.

Facing the little-known Lima (14-1, 10 KOs) for the interim WBA title is supposed to be a springboard for Ennis, getting him ready for bigger and better bouts in 2026.

"This is not an easy fight to go into at 154," Hearn said. "But after this fight we want Ortiz, Murtazaliev, Fundora. Boots will fight anyone, he will beat them all. We just have to make sure we get those fights."