Promoter Eddie Hearn is confident he can put together a fight to unify Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis and another champion at 147 in the first quarter of 2025.
Boots (32-0, 29 KOs) is scheduled to defend her IBF welterweight title against mandatory challenger Karen Chukhadzhian on November 9 in Philadelphia. After that fight, Ennis’ next fight will be against another champion.
“We run a business,” said Fight Hub TV’s Eddie Hearn when asked why he lost the bid for Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis’ bout against Karen Chukhadzhian. “In the amount we bought, we had already invested a lot of money in that war. And, he [Boots] it has a minimum.
“People don’t understand bag bids. “A fighter has a small price in his contract, sometimes the bid is below the minimum price because you don’t want to overpay the competitors, and Chukhadzhian is already overpaid,” said Hearn.
This time, Boot Ennis was lucky that Hearn was able to make a deal with Chukhadzhian’s management to agree to fight in Philadelphia. But if Hearn continues to lose bids for Boots Ennis’ fight purse, he will end up fighting all over the world, and ultimately, that could lead to him losing. Traveling fighters often find it difficult to win decisions against the home boys. Hearn needs to do a better job of winning the boot bag bids.
“So, we sat down with Jaron and said, ‘Look, this is a number we’re comfortable bidding,'” Hearn said. “Financially it is already a disaster for us, but we will support that. Let’s try to do this battle. His promoters got into this madness.
“Now, whether they could do it or not, I extended my hand to them and said, ‘Look, what do you want to do?’ Where do you want to do this battle? Do you want to do it? Do you have the resources for that, or do you want to work together and do it with us?’ And we cut a deal to do it together,” said Hearn.
If Boots ended up fighting Karen in Germany or Ukraine, that would be cool. Hearn would come under fire from the fans, especially if Boot lost.
“The reason we decided to do this fight is because I had a very honest and honest conversation with Jaron Ennis, who told me, ‘My dream in boxing is to put together a division and win multiple belts in the division.’ He’ll do that at 154, and he’ll do that at 160,” Hearn said.
If Boots is not confident that he can win at 154, he should stay where he is, fight no name guys at 147, and hope that when Crawford is 37 years old, he will be a star. It took until his 15th year as a pro for him to become popular because he was fighting opposition fans had never heard of before.
“I asked Bozy a simple question. ‘Do you need to physically move to 154? How do you make weight?’ They said: ‘Easy.’ I’m like, ‘Then we need to merge.’ ‘No, but this war.’ “I know, but sometimes you need to do things,” Hearn said. We’re going to make a big card out of it [Karen Chukhadzhian fight]. People will understand the journey.”
Boots can stay at welterweight for years, but that doesn’t mean they have to. His career would be much faster if he moved up to 154 now and started fighting guys like Vergil Ortiz, Tim Tszyu, Serhii Bohachuk, and Israel Madrimov.
There is no need for Boot to stay at 147 if Hearn can’t come up with the money to pay other champions what they want. If $1.7 million is what Hearn is sticking with, he’s never going to get three welterweight champions to agree to fight Boots. They know their chances of winning are slim. Therefore, they will ask for more money because they prefer to keep their world titles without being overpaid.
“‘We have to face this boy, and then we will unite.’ When I look at other champions. If it was Crawford and if it was Spence and all these other champions. I think, ‘They won’t just fight him,’ but they don’t. Barrios said. It’s Norman. It’s Stanionis,’” Hearn said.
“Boots are the biggest battle for all those guys. Sooner or later, one of those guys is going to realize they need to fight. They are the ones who will take the lead, and I’m sure we can do that merger in the first quarter of 2025,” said Hearn.
In order for Hearn to be convinced to make a deal, it must mean that he is willing to pay a lot of money because he will not find any champion who will agree to fight Bhuti without paying top dollar. WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr. he wanted $2.2 million to fight Boot, but Hearn wouldn’t go over $1.7 million.
“So I decided to pay. I made the decision to double down on the card. Bringing Bam. Putting Ray Ford in a really good fight. Entering Khalil Coe. A brilliant card. Sometimes, you have to wipe your mouth and go, ‘It is what it is. Let’s get on with it. Let’s win this war, and we should try to unite in 2025.
“Once we have done that, we try to consolidate again and try not to be contested. But at least once before we move to 154.
“I believe that if Jaron wins in November and consolidates this division, it will be very difficult for Terence to avoid that fight unless he retires from sports because the Brothers will grow. Once he’s together, there’s going to be real momentum in that fight, but it might take Honorable Mention to put Crawford on the money and say, ‘Okay, I’ll do it.'”
Hearn is not considering the time it will take for Ennis to complete his goal of becoming the undisputed welterweight champion. Without a Matchroom manager willing to offer insane amounts of money to three champions at 147, it would take Boots two years or more to achieve his goal.
By then, Crawford will either have retired or been beaten by one or more of the 154-lb fighters. He is showing his age and was lucky enough to win his junior middleweight debut against Israel Madrimov.
“They won’t want to do it. Nobody really wants to fight Boot, let’s be honest,” said Hearn.
Of course, the welterweight champions won’t want to fight Bro. And, unless Hearn is throwing crazy money at them, they and their promoters will want nothing to do with Ennis. It’s the same with Hearn and his other heroes.
He was taking out vulnerable guys like Edgar Berlanga and players he couldn’t beat before matching him to Canelo Alvarez for mega-bucks. He would not take chances with the sun. It’s the same with other fighters who don’t want to face Boot Ennis. They won’t do it unless Hearn digs deep and pays whatever they ask.
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