Brian Norman Sr. says promoter Eddie Hearn doesn’t care about Jeron ‘Boots’ Ennis and he does “question” his talent after a lackluster performance against Karen Chukhajian on November 9.
Norman Sr. states that Hearn does not want Boots to fight Vergil Ortiz Jr. because he doesn’t want to see him lose to one of Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya’s fighters. Bryan Sr. says he thinks Hearn told His Excellency Turki Alalshik to send the contract at 147 as the weight for the Boots fight, knowing Vergil Jr. would. refuse. That would make him and De La Hoya look bad, like they’re getting out of Boots (33-0, 29 KOs).
That move would serve two purposes:
- Ennis would avoid almost certain defeat by Vergil
- The boots look scary
IBF Title “The Apology”
Norman Sr points out that Hearn’s comments about Ennis being concerned about having to vacate his IBF featherweight title if he moves to challenge Ortiz Jr for his interim WBC 154lb belt are nonsense. Hearn knows that’s not the case.
Boots already defended his IBF mandatory against Karen Chukhadzhian on November 9, so the sanctioning body would allow him to move up one fight against Virgil Jr. Brian Sr. says she was “Play” on Hearn’s side saying that Ennis will lose his IBF 147-lb title if he reaches 154 for a one-off bout against Vergil Jr.
Hearn knows that Boots would not lose his IBF title, but just wanted an excuse for the media so he could spin the fight against Ortiz Jr., which he would likely lose.
“An offer was made to (WBC welterweight champion Mario) Barrios for Conor Benn. Why? Eddie don’t worry about Boots. He never worried about Boots. “He’s been playing with him since the beginning,” Brian Norman Sr. said MillCity Bookingtalking about Eddie Hearn not caring about Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, who he promotes.
“Boots had a poor performance in his last fight (Karen Chukhadzhian). So Eddie is now interrogating Boots. Eddie hears what people are saying about Boots. So now you have to think about his anxiety about losing to Oscar (De La Hoya). I don’t think he (Ennis) wanted to fight him (Virgil Ortiz Jr.) anyway.
“I don’t believe that Turki Alalshih was behind sending that contract to 147. Who had a personal relationship with Turki Alalshih?” Eddie Hearn. It’s a play. He told him to do it. There’s no reason for them to do that when they knew Vergil Ortiz was promoted for the same reason he can’t make weight.”
Conor Over Boots?
Norman Sr.’s comment about “offering” WBC light heavyweight champion Mario Barrios to defend against fellow Matchroom fighter Conor Benn reflects his preference for him over Ennis. This supports Norman Sr.’s argument that Hearn doesn’t care about Boots because he talked about not being able to arrange the fight with Barrios for him. But here he is, offering Barrios to fight Conor, who has never beaten a world-class fighter and is considered the spoiled son of famous British fighter Nigel Benn.
“Boots already defended his (IBF 147-lb) title against his mandatory (Chuhadjian). There’s no reason he shouldn’t go to 154 to fight Virgil Ortiz. “I think Eddie told Turki Alalshik to send that (contract) to 147 because he knew it wasn’t going to happen,” Norman Jr. said.
Hearn’s comment that Ennis would have to relinquish his IBF title if he made it to 154 for the Virgil fight went over the heads of casual fans and the media. Norman Sr. is right. Ennis could move up to 154 without losing his IBF title. Hearn would just have to let the IBF know in advance what he plans to do to get the approval, and then it wouldn’t be a problem.
“Maybe he did it so Vergil would say, ‘No, because I can’t do 147.’ Maybe he was trying to get Oscar to say no to save face. “Now that it’s not happening, it looks like it’s coming back to him and it looks like Boots did it,” Norman Sr. said.
