Promoter Eddie Hearn says DAZN has invested money in Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis to do unification fights at welterweight. Hearn states that Ennis doesn’t have much time left at 147, so if he’s going to unify the division, he must do it now.
Hearn doesn’t seem to want Ennis to move up to 154, which is understandable given his recent performance against Karen Chukhadzhian.
Ennis may need to move up to 154 because of the problems Hearn is having getting any of the champions at welterweight to agree to fight him for the money he’s offering.
If Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) moves up to 154, he can face WBC champion Vergil Ortiz Jr. on February 22nd in Riyadh. That fight would attack a lot of interest, and the winner would be in a position for other big fights.
Some fans believe Hearn isn’t eager for Ennis to move up to junior middleweight to fight Vergil Jr. after his poor showing against Karen Chukhadzhian on November 9th in Philadelphia.
“DAZN has invested a lot of money in ‘Boots’ Ennis, and the plan was to do a big unification fight [at 47] in the spring, so obviously, this fight would land on February 22 in Saudi Arabia,” said Eddie Hearn to Yahoo Sports about Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis potentially fighting WBC interim junior middleweight champion Vergil Ortiz Jr. next on February 22nd in Riyadh.
DAZN has paid Ennis will, and for that reason, they’d likely prefer that he move up to 154 rather than stay at 147 to fight these three lackluster champions:
– Mario Barrios
– Eimantas Stanionis
– Brian Norman Jr.
“If it’s acceptable to DAZN and the plan that they have for Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, we’re OK with it. We accept that fight, Jaron accepts the fight,” said Hearn about a match between Boots and WBC interim 154-lb champion Vergil Ortiz Jr.
It sounds like Hearn is passing the responsibility of whether Ennis should move up or stay at 147 to DAZN. If they prefer Ennis stay at 147 to continue trying to unify the division, Hearn can tell the media that it was DAZN that wants Ennis to stay at welterweight. That way Hearn doesn’t get blamed.
DAZN would obviously prefer Ennis move up to 154 to fight killers like Vergil Ortiz Jr, Terence Crawford, Israil Madrimov, Bakhram Murtazaliev, and Sebastian Fundora. Errol Spence and Tim Tszyu. It doesn’t look like Hearn wants that.
“BUT, we are talking to the other [welterweight] champions about a potential unification at 147 because [Ennis] hasn’t got long left [in that weight class]. The reason that we took the last fight against Chukhadzhian was to keep the [IBF welterweight] belt and to unify,” said Hearn.
As you can see, Hearn is making it clear that Boots Ennis will be staying at welterweight to continue his quest to become the undisputed champion in the weight class. Hearn doesn’t say whether he’ll continue to back Boots’ goal of unifying the division if he continues to meet financial resistance from the other champions.
Hearn has already shown that he’s not going to overpay to get the other champions to agree to fight Ennis. He’s going to offer them what he feels is a fair price, and if they refuse to accept the offer, Hearn will move on.
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