The IBF welterweight champion never had the sport “forced” on him but as soon as he learned the basics, he adored how euphoric it made him feel and knew it would be his future.

He told Boxing News magazine: “My dad introduced me to boxing, but never forced it on me.

“He just said, ‘I’m gonna teach you how to fight, and whatever you do with that is up to you.’

“Then I decided to take it to the next level.

“Once my dad showed me how to box, I always knew that was what I was going to do.

“Boxing was just too fun and too easy for me. I loved how it made me feel.

“It’s a different feeling, a feeling you really can’t explain.

“Whenever I’m in the gym, or fighting in front of fans, I just feel free to do whatever I want. I’ll be in my happy place, in my zone.”

Jaron – who, like his brothers Derek and Farah, is trained by dad Derrick Ennis – had his first fight when he was just eight years old.

He recalled: “I don’t even think I was supposed to be fighting because you have to be nine to box, but they let me fight anyway.

“I fought an older kid who was bigger than me, and stopped him in the first round. That’s another moment when I was like, ‘I just can’t wait to turn pro’. I never really wanted to be an amateur.”

And Boots and his family knew when he was just 12 years old that he could take the sport “to another level”.

He said: “The first time I sparred a professional fighter was when I knew that I could take this to another level.

“I was around 12 or 13 years old at the time, boxing a fully grown man who my dad trained. He was like 10-0 as a pro.

“I just went in there, handled myself and did extraordinary.

“My dad and brothers all thought to themselves, ‘This kid is a monster.’

“Ever since then, I’ve just been sparring and boxing professional fighters.”