Promoter Eddie Hearn says WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr. turned down “more” than $1.5 million for a unification fight against IBF champ Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis.
Norman Jr’s dad, Brian Sr, says the first offer was less than one-third of what Boots made for David Avanesyan last July. “It was a little bit more than what you gave David Avanesyan, and my son is a world champion,” said Brian Sr. on social media.
Hearn’s Ulterior Motives?
Brian Sr says Hearn didn’t want to make the fight. He just wanted to go through the motions to pretend he was trying to make the Boots-Norman Jr fight so that he could return to Boots later and say that he tried.
Some fans believe Hearn’s real interest is making the Boots vs. Karen Chukhadzhian rematch. They also believe Hearn wants to match Boots against his fighter, Conor Benn, for an in-house Matchroom fight. That’s the silver tuna for Hearn—the Karen rematch.
Not an Isolated Incident
It seems like Hearn isn’t going to be able to be too tight-fisted to get the unification fights that Boots Ennis (32-0, 29 KOs) needs for him to become the undisputed champion. Norman Jr. isn’t the only one who has complaints about the low money offered to him by Hearn. WBA champion Eimantas Stanionis also mentioned money.
If Hearn doesn’t want to pay the champions the going rate, Boots may as well forget about staying at 147 to try and become undisputed because it won’t happen.
He must move up to 154 and forget about becoming undisputed because he’ll likely experience the same problems in that weight class. Instead of collecting belts, Boots should focus on fighting the best guys at 154, be it Terence Crawford, Vergil Ortiz, Tim Tszyu and Israil Madrimov.
“The second offer was less than half of what Boots made in his last fight,” said Norman Sr. about the money Hearn offered him for a fight against Ennis. “The third offer was half of what Boots made in his last fight. So imagine what Boots is going to make in this unification bout. Considerably more than he made in his last fight.
“You [Hearn] did not want to make this fight. The only reason you did was to tell Boots and his team that you tried to make the fight. You did not make the fight. I gave [Boots’ dad] Bozy the numbers. I told Bozy what it was. Bozy knows that’s bull,” said Norman Sr.
The champions aren’t going to accept $1 to 2 million to fight Boots, especially if they’re underdogs. They’re in a position where they’re likely to lose their titles, and the money that Hearn is offering doesn’t make it worthwhile. Norman Jr and the other two champions are 147, are better off making title defenses and holding onto their belts for as long as possible. In the long run, they’ll earn a lot more money than they would get from fighting Boots Ennis.
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