Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis has a decision to make whether to stay at 147 to pursue his dream of becoming the undisputed welterweight champion or move up to 154 to broaden his horizons against the more popular but more dangerous fighters in that section.
Boots (32-0, 29 KOs) needs to keep his eyes open and understand that he may have just as much trouble trying to get fights that will help his career at 154 as he did at 147.
Hearn’s reluctance to invest
Ennis’ promoter, Eddie Hearn, has shown twice now that he is unwilling to invest money in getting him the fights that will help him become a welterweight star.
This isn’t the UK, where you can take a fighter and match them up against lower level fighters to turn them into a PPV attraction. Hearn didn’t have to lift a finger to make Anthony Joshua a massive British star.
All Hearn did was pit Joshua against lesser fighters and then pit him against 41-year-old Wladimir Klitschko to make him a superstar in Britain. That approach doesn’t work for the US Promoters have to actually invest in their fighters and match them up against good opposition repeatedly to turn them into stars.
They can’t find an over-the-hill 41-year-old former world champion and match a young hopeful against them to turn them into a PPV attraction. That won’t work in the US, where fans expect quality fights and they know when a fighter is protected.
The US is too big for Hearn to use the same tactics he used to turn Joshua into a superstar in that country. Americans no longer give much weight to Olympic gold medalists, especially if their medal was controversial, like Joshua’s.
To become a star in the States, Hearn must negotiate deals for Boots to fight the best he can. So, if Boots wants to stay at 147, Hearn needs to line up fights with the three remaining camps because he won’t become a star by fighting Karen Chukhadzhian and David Avanesyan.
Lowball offers and missed opportunities
Hearn’s decision to not accept the $1.7 million offer to WBO 147-lb champion Brian Norman Jr. to raise, blew an opportunity for Ennis to get that fight, which would have helped his career. Tim Bradley said Boots should have thrown in its own money to sweeten the deal to the $2.2 million Norman Jr. was asking for. asked.
But why should Ennis use his money when he has Hearn? He drew him and talked about how he would turn Boots into a star. But he’s not going to let that happen if he doesn’t manage to land important unification fights against Norman Jr. to negotiate and lost the purse bid in the same week.
WBA champion Eimanis Stanionis was also not interested in fighting Ennis for the money on offer.
Additionally, Hearn lost the purse for Boots Ennis’ IBF mandatory defense against Karen Chukhadzhian. Hearn says he still wants Boots to retain his IBF title, but that now means he will have to fight wherever Karen’s promoters choose. Losing a purse bid was a point in the eyes of fans that Hearn wasn’t interested in putting money into Ennis’ career to get him the fights he needed.
Is it time for Ennis to ditch Hearn?
A source told Thaboxingvoice that Hearn made a six-figure offer to 154-pounder Charles Conwell for a fight against Boots. That fight probably won’t happen either, as Conwell will want to be paid well to take on the highly hyped Ennis.
If Boots moves up to 154, there’s no way to know if he’ll do well in that division. Those fighters hit harder than Boots and have enough talent to beat him. He gets hit with everything, and if he has to rely on his chin to win fights at 154, it could let him down sooner or later.
