By Robbie Bannatyne – 10/29/2024 – Comments
The champions at 147 want big dough to Face IBF welterweight champ Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis for Unification fights. Ennis is too dangerous, and the other champions don’t want to take less than big money for a fight that they don’t think they can win.
Boot’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, hasn’t shown the willingness to pay the champions the money they want. It costs money to set these fights up, and Boots (32-0, 29 KOs) has yet to become a PPV attraction. To lure these champions into taking a fight that they know they can’t win, Hearn will need to overpay, and he’s not shown the willingness to do that.
Unless Hearn is willing to start investing money in Ennis to make these fights happen to transform him into a star, he needs to give up on his dream of becoming an undisputed champion.
“When you get to the level where Jaron Ennis is at, where he’s a world champion and a dangerous guy, opponents out there are going to ask for a bag,” said Chris Mannix to DAZN Boxing on X about the problems confronting IBF 147-lb champ Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis about his problems getting unification fights against the other welterweight champions.
“That’s what happened with the Brian Norman situation. They wanted a pile of money if they were going to get in the ring with Boots. The same with Eimantas Stanionis. The same thing with Mario Barrios. These guys know Eddie Hearn needs to make big fights for his star fighter, and they’re going to demand the kind of cash accordingly.”
It’s not just that the champions know that Hearn is needy. They obviously feel that they can’t win this fight, and they’re not just pointing to giving away their world titles for $1 million. You can’t blame champions like WBO belt-holder Brian Norman Jr. for wanting $2.2 million to face a talent like Ennis in his hometown of Philadelphia.
It’s not that the champions are asking for a King’s ransom for a fight against Ennis. It’s more of a case of them feeling that it’s better for them to hold onto their titles and wait until His Excellency Turki Alalshikh looks in their direction to offer them massive cash to fight on one of his Riyadh Season cards.
Ennis is making a low-level defense against his IBF mandatory Karen Chukhadzhian next month in a rematch on November 9th at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. Hearn failed to negotiate a unification fight between Ennis and Norman, which is why Boots is stuck with the defense against Karen.
Last Updated on 10/29/2024
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