NEW YORK — Teofimo Lopez recognizes why skeptics think he shouldn’t fight Jaron Ennis.

Philadelphia’s Ennis is a career-long welterweight whose chin has withstood shots from bigger fighters than Lopez without incident. The taller, rangier Ennis also appears physically equipped to thrive in the junior middleweight division, two weight classes above where Lopez has operated during the past 2½ years.

Lopez loves challenges, though, thus The Ring and WBO junior welterweight champion wants to test himself against another elite-level talent such as Ennis. The opportunity to become a champion in a third division also appeals to Lopez, 27, who could add a third Ring belt to his resume if he were to upset Ennis (34-0, 30 KOs, 1 NC).

Las Vegas’ Lopez (22-1, 13 KOs) considers Rolando “Rolly” Romero a potential opponent as well, now that the former WBA super lightweight champ upset Ryan Garcia (24-2, 20 KOs, 1 NC) in the main event of The Ring’s “FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves” card Friday night in Times Square.

Lopez, who defeated Arnold Barboza Jr. (32-1, 11 KOs) unanimously on points Friday night, clarified during his post-fight press conference that challenging Ennis for his Ring, IBF and WBA 147-pound championships is his preference over fighting Romero (17-2, 13 KOs).

“I don’t know. It’s up to my team. It’s up to everybody,” Lopez said. “I think Rolly definitely still mentioned earlier in the press conference that he still wants to see Garcia and [Devin] Haney fight, regardless. And it’s up to him at this point. I claimed who I wanna go after, and that’s Jaron Ennis, ‘Boots.’ 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.”

Ennis is more interested in fully unifying the welterweight titles. Accomplishing that would require the 27-year-old to defeat WBC champ Mario Barrios (29-2-1, 18 KOs) and WBO champ Brian Norman Jr. (27-0, 21 KOs, 1 NC).

Norman, of Conyers, Georgia, is scheduled to make an optional title defense against Japan’s Jin Sasaki (19-1-1, 17 KOs) on June 19 at Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo. San Antonio’s Barrios might fight Manny Pacquiao (62-8-2, 39 KOs) in July, if the Filipino legend comes out of retirement.

Ennis expects to return to the ring sometime in October. His promoter, Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn, has already had preliminary discussions with Norman’s handlers about making that fight. Norman has to defeat Sasaki.

Lopez hopes Ennis changes his mind and seriously considers facing him instead.

“I have that champion’s mentality, as you can see here on the table,” Lopez said, pointing to his championship belts displayed on the dais. "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.”