Johannesburg – Promoter Eddie Hearn was furious on Thursday, after failing to negotiate a deal to bring newly signed IBF welterweight champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis’ against Brian Norman Jr.
“Luck” Lowered
An estimated $1.5 million offer Hearn floated to Norman Jr. (26-0, 20 KOs) was rejected by his team. Hearn says the $1.5 Million he gave Norman was “a fluke,” and thinks he’s a fool for turning it down. Hearn can’t help but believe that the small amount of money is Norman’s “luck”. If he really believes that, he respects Norman Jr.’s power.
He believes Norman, 23, will never see this kind of money for the rest of his career. If Hearn didn’t look like Scrooge McDuck, he would have given Norman Jr. $2 million or whatever he was asking for because Ennis needs those belts to take his career to the next level. Hearn needs to look at it as an investment instead of focusing on his short term profit margin decline.
Boot Ennis is about to defend his IBF title Karen Chukhadzhian November 9th in Philadelphia. Hearn said Boot might vacate his IBF title to focus on fighting other guys, but then changed his mind, saying he might still fight Karen.
The Cost of Missed Opportunities
Brother doesn’t want to fight at 154. Therefore, he will not relinquish his IBF title. Fighting Chukhadzhian again would damage Ennis’s popularity, cripple him badly, and could have been avoided. If Hearn had not been so close in his negotiations with Norman, he would have had that Ennis fight, and his popularity would have gone through the roof if he won.
The battle will be incredibly exciting as Boot and Norman go to war, trading bombs in what will be a fun fight to watch. But with Hearn failing to deliver Norman, fans will watch Boot chase Karen around the ring for 12 rounds on November 9 and look out of sorts again.
He will stay at 147, probably as long as it takes to collect the belts. That means, Hearn will have to pay the champions, Norman Jr., Barrios and Stanionas what they are asking for. Visualizing it. Hearn has to make those fights as soon as possible because if he waits, those champions will become more popular, and they will demand more than the pitiful $1.5 million he was offering Norman.
“We made an offer to Stanionis north of a million dollars. Where will Stanionis see such money? Who is Stanionis? It was put on a plate for them,” said promoter Eddie Hearn on the Matchroom Boxing YouTube channel, lamenting the champion, Brian Norman Jr. and Eimantas Stanionis, asking more than he was willing to pay them for the unification fight of the IBF champion. Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis.
Hearn’s repeated failure to negotiate with other champions at 147 shows that he cannot help him. Denigrating them by predicting they’ll never make the same money doesn’t help cover up his failure to deliver the fights Boot needs and wants.
“The problem with boxing. Brian Norman, Stanionis, and Marios Barrios, know they can’t beat Boots. No one wants to be really great. Brian Norman, who no one has heard of, has a chance to beat Jaron Ennis and become a sports star and make a fortune. [$1.5 million] I’m on my way. But he talks about it, but he doesn’t talk about it.
Hearn Discussion Problems
Hearn seems to be doing a poor job negotiating the three fights Boots (32-0, 29 KOs) needs to fight to become the undefeated champion. He has already come up with his attempts to negotiate with WBA champion Eimantas Stanionis and has gotten nowhere with WBC champion Mario Barrios.
Going forward, someone even more aggressive needs to control the Boot Ennis negotiations because Hearn is too emotional and can’t see what’s really important. He is so concerned about his short-term gain that he fails to see the long-term investment.
Ennis has to give up his futile dream of becoming the undefeated champion because his promoter, Hearn, doesn’t want to open his bank to pay the champion a price.
“Stanionis, don’t get me started on him. This guy wrote on Twitter. When I gave Stanionis, I did not throw away my caviar. Now, he doesn’t want to know either. Barrios is fighting someone else, or whatever. Barrios is a good fighter. These guys, they’re not really into it.
“They talk about it, but no one wants to roll the dice and try to be great. People are coming back on Twitter, ‘Oh, Eddie. I bet your gift was like $300,000.’ I wish I had. That was more than five times [$1.5 million]however, he still does not want to fight. What is Brian Norman’s biggest bag? $200,000?” Sizwe said.
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