Promoter Eddie Hearn says he wants Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis to defend his IBF welterweight title on November 9th in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, Hearn has failed to negotiate unification deals with 147-lb champions Brian Norman Jr. and Eimantas Stanionis.
Hearn’s inflexible attitude towards negotiating with the champions makes it unlikely that Ennis will get the opportunity to unify. The Matchroom boss seems to have a hardened stance in negotiating and is the problem.
Hearn says he doesn’t want Boots to vacate his IBF title, but given that he’s been able to negotiate a deal with any of the three 147-lb champions, the options are limited. If Boots vacates, he can move up to 154, potentially getting fights against Serhii Bohachuk or Israil Madrimov.
Hearn’s Reluctance to Pay
If Hearn gets his way, Boots will defend against his IBF mandatory Karen Chukhadzhian on November 9th. That fight won’t do much for Boots Ennis’ popularity or help him move closer to attaining his goal of becoming undisputed at welterweight.
WBO champion Norman (26-0, 20 KOs) wants $2.2 million, but Hearn doesn’t seem willing to increase his offer of $1.75 million.
Assuming Hearn will continue to take an unyielding stance about coming up with the money that the welterweight champions will agree to, he might as well convince Boots Ennis to vacate his IBF title and move up to 154.
It’s not as if WBO champ Norman, WBA champion Eimantas Stanionis, or WBC champ Mario Barrios will lower their asking price after Boots defends against Karen on November 9th. Those champions will want the same money if not more than they’re asking for now.
So, Hearn might be kidding himself if he thinks kicking the negotiation problems with the 147-lb champions down the road will improve the situation. Letting them stew won’t likely work. It’s unlikely that any of those champions will become desperate and willing to accept whatever lowball offer Hearn throws at them.
“Jaron Ennis against [Serhii] Bohachuk, maybe. I had a call with Jaron tonight. We’re just talking about what we’re going to do. We probably got 48 hours to make our decision,” said Eddie Hearn to the iFL TV YouTube channel.
Negotiating a fight with former WBC interim 154-lb champion Serhii Bohachuk won’t be easy for Hearn, and he might have similar problems putting a deal together with him for a fight against Boots.
“For me, I really don’t want to see him [Ennis] give up the [IBF welterweight] world title because I want to see him spank Brian Norman,” said Hearn. “I want to see him pummel Stanionis, and I want to see him in a war with Mario Barrios, which is the toughest of the three fights,” Hearn continued.
If Hearn doesn’t want Boots to give up his IBF title, he’ll need to pay the champions their asking price because these are world champions, not contenders.
Is Hearn Favoring Joshua Over Ennis?
It doesn’t matter what these fighters made before they were elevated to championship status through email. They hold titles now, and Boots Ennis needs those belts to raise his stock. If Hearn remembers back when he negotiated a deal for Anthony Joshua to win his first title against IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin in 2016, he paid top dollar to make that fight for his precious AJ.
Martin received a purse of $8.5 million to defend against Joshua in London. Before that, Martin had never gotten that kind of money, yet things changed due to his holding the IBF title. Joshua needed that belt to validate him, so Martin was paid huge money.
Now, WBO champion Brian Norman is in the same boat. Boots Ennis needs Norman Jr’s WBO belt to increase his value and turn him into a star, but in this case, Hearn is being close-fisted and unwilling to pay. What does that tell you?
It suggests that Hearn was more willing to help Anthony Joshua than he is with Boots Ennis, and you have to wonder why.
Is it because Boots is American? Hearn must get with it and understand that he must be willing to pay the champions’ asking price if he wants Boots to become a star. He’s not one now, and he didn’t look good in his last two fights against David Avanesyan and Roiman Villa.
“I think the reality is Brian Norman is going to go away and earn about 200 grand to fight on Keyshawn Davis’ undercard [on November 8th in Norfolk, Virgina],” said Hearn. “That’s how insulting that is, with all due respect to Keyshawn Davis, who I love.”
Whether Norman will make less for his next fight in November doesn’t matter. What’s essential is that Hearn has failed to deliver a fight for Boots Ennis against one of the three champions he must fight to become undisputed.
Now, Hearn is kicking around the idea of wanting Boots to vacate his IBF title and move up to 154 because he’s unable to negotiate due to the offers he’s making to the champions. Again, if this were Anthony Joshua, whom Hearn was negotiating for, would he find the money to get the fights he wants? He would. If you’re Boots, you got to be taking notice of this.
“Imagine you just turned down $1.75 million for a unification fight in front of 22,000 people at Wells Fargo [Center in Philadelphia] to get $200 grand to fight on Keyshawn Davis’ undercard in Virginia in front of 3,000 people,” said Hearn.
Imagine that Hearn isn’t willing to increase the offer to $2.2 million to help Boots Ennis make the fight with Norman Jr. Now, why is that? Hearn is giving up on the negotiations over the $500K extra that Team Norman wants from the $1.7 million offer. Would Hearn do the same thing for one of Joshua’s opponents, nickel & diming it?
“So once Team Norman has thrown up in their soup, they’ll be sitting there going, ‘Ah.’ What are they going to do? Where else can they make that kind of money [$1.7M] to fight anyone? It has to be Boots,” said Hearn.
What’s interesting about that is Shakur Stevenson’s opponent for his October 12th fight, Joe Cordina, is rumored to be getting more than $2 million, even though he was knocked out in his last fight in May. If the rumor is true, it puts things in perspective.
“Stanionis, what are you going to do? For Stanionis, [Shakhram] Giyasov is the mandatory. Alright, do the Giyasov fight. What is he going to make for that? Mario Barrios is a bit of a bigger name, but still, the money fight for all of those guys is Boots,” said Hearn.
It doesn’t matter if Boots is the money fight for those champions. What’s important is that Hearn negotiates the fight, not focusing on those champions making less without him. What Hearn doesn’t understand is that Stanionis, Norman, and Barrios will make more money in the long run as champions than they would with being offered $1+ million for a Boots fight.
“So, I don’t want to give up on making those [unification] fights [for Boots], but those people have got to get in touch with reality,” said Hearn. “Brian Norman and [his manager] Adrian [Clark] and just [accept the offer given to them]. But it’s really difficult dealing with people who have no idea. It’s so frustrating.”
Hearn seems too accustomed to easy negotiations and unable to handle the give-and-take of dealing with champions who want to be paid well for a difficult fight. Barrios, Stanionis, and Norman Jr. will all be underdogs against Ennis.
It makes sense that they would want to be paid well. Hearn would take the same approach if he were negotiating from a position of weakness for one of his popular fighters, like Joshua. If he knew that AJ would be the underdog, he would try to get him the most money possible, knowing that his popularity would drop after he lost.
“Not 100%, but if you ask me for a decision now, that’s what I think he should do. We’re open to a discussion within the team, and Boots is the boss,” said Hearn when asked if Boots should defend his IBF welterweight title next in Philadelphia. This would mean that Ennis would be defending against his IBF mandatory Karen Chukhadzhian in a rematch on November 9th in Philadelphia.
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