Eddie Hearn says the reports of Matchroom releasing Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis from his contract are false. Hearn states that they plan on keeping IBF welterweight champion Ennis (32-0, 29 KOs) for his entire career and would never release him in a “million years.”
An announcement for Boots’ next fight in November could come this Saturday or early next week. Hearn states that he’s speaking with the management of IBF mandatory Karen Chukhadzhian about setting up the fight, which he hopes will be in Philadelphia.
This week, there was a post on Twitter about Matchroom planning to cut Ennis. Hearn says he was asked by several media outlets whether the Tweet was true, and he says it’s untrue.
Boxing fans wondered whether Hearn was still eager to promote Boots after he failed to negotiate a unification fight for him against WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr. Hearn could have sealed the deal if he’d increased his offer of $1.7 million to $2.2 million that Team Norman was asking for, but he opted not to.
Some fans viewed Hearn’s unwilling to invest $500K to boost Ennis’ career as a signal that he’s not amped up about promoting him compared to other fighters with arguably less physical talent, like Shakur Stevenson, who has been lavishing with praise and reportedly paying him a King’s ransom for his now-canceled fight against Joe Cordina.
When Hearn lost the purse bid for Boots Ennis’ IBF mandatory Karen Chukhadzhian last week, it was further proof that he’s not enamored with Jaron and is displaying his lack of interest in promoting him by being a miser.
Hearn says the plan is for Boots Ennis to stay at 147 to try and collect all the belts. That’s where Ennis intends to stay rather than moving up to 154, which is filled with apex predators that would be risky for him.
“Just the most bizarre world we live in. Whatever you read on Twitter, 70%, maybe 80% of it is complete bollox,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV, denying that he’s parting ways with Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, cutting him loose from Matchroom.
“People think it’s actually true. We have signed one of the best talents in U.S. boxing, Boots. I couldn’t be prouder to represent him. We’ve just knocked in a 15,000 crowd in Philadelphia. On what planet would we be releasing Boots from his contract? No, never, not in a million years,” said Hearn.
It would be crazy for Hearn to dump Boots Ennis so soon, given how he was smothering him with compliments from head to toe after recently signing him to Matchroom. Boots has only fought once since being signed by Hearn, stoppeding journeyman David Avanesyan in the fifth round on July 13th.
After all the compliments that Hearn had poured over the head of Boots by the bucketful, it was a letdown that he matched him against the 35-year-old Avanesyan rather than Brian Norman, Terence Crawford, Mario Barrios, or Eimantas Stanionis.
If Hearn is going to be a cheapskate when it comes to coming up with the dough to lure the top fighters to face Boots, what’s the point of keeping him with the matchroom?
It doesn’t make sense. It’s like buying an expensive Ferrari and then keeping it in the garage 90% of the time, except for Sunday drives. If Hearn is going to turn Boots into a star, he’s going to need to invest in his career. He may hate the idea now, but he’ll be glad he did it later when it rains money later each time Boots fights.
“That’s not what they meant with the Tweet. They said, ‘Matchroom is looking to release Boots Ennis.’ No. We’ve got a great relationship with Boots and Bozy. We’re definitely not going to be releasing him,” said Hearn about Boots. “His next fight will be in November, and it will be announced as early as Saturday, but probably early next week.”
I’m not sure why Hearn is being so coy about who Boots Ennis is fighting in November when it’s obvious that it’s going to be Karen Chukhadzhian, the same guy that he beat by a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision last year in January in Washington, D.C.
“We’ve got this [Karen] Chukhadzhian fight, which is a rematch,” said Hearn. “It wasn’t one that we anticipated, but we see the future at 147 pounds. We want to make sure he can get those unifications. There’s no guarantee that Norman, Stanionis, and Barrios will fight Boots, but I’d like to have a run at it.”
If Hearn thinks Brian Norman Jr’s price tag will be lower next year than the $2.2 million he requested this time, he’s kidding himself. If anything, Norman Jr. will want more money, and hearn will kick himself for not agreeing to the $2.2M. Norman is defending his WBO title against Derrieck Cuevas on November 8th on ESPN+, and if he looks like gold in that fight, his value will soar, and Hearn will be stuck with a much harder fight to put together.
“There’s no rush weigh-wise to move to 154, but that is under consideration as well,” Hearn continued about Boots’ options. “We’re talking, but we’re definitely not releasing Boots from his contract. We hope to represent Boots for the rest of his career.”
I can’t blame Hearn for not wanting Boots Ennis to move up to 154 because that would be a dangerous place for him, especially with his lack of defense. They hit too hard for a fighter that gets tagged as much as Ennis typically does in his fights.
If Ennis moves up to 154, the chances are high that the predators in that division would make life difficult for him. Ennis would have to change his fighting style to become more of a boxer in order to thrive as a junior middleweight.
“We want to continue the success we had in Philadelphia,” said Hearn when asked if he would want Boots to defend against Karen in Germany, given that Matchroom lost the purse bid to the promoters of Chukhadzhian. “So, we’ll have to see. We’re speaking to Chukhadzhian’s team as well. We’ll have to see what’s next.”
