Eddie Hearn is asking IBF mandated Karen Chukhadzhian’s team to allow the fight against Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis to take place on November 9 in Philadelphia as part of a doubleheader with Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez.
Hearn is in this predicament that he has to ask Chukhadzhian’s team to make the fight in Philadelphia because he lost the purse bid.
If Hearn had put up the money to win the bid, he wouldn’t have had to negotiate. In the end, it would have been less expensive for Hearn if he had won the bid.
There is a lesson for the Matchroom promoter: Think long term without considering future consequences. Eddie Hearn wasn’t so concerned about saving a little money; he would have won the purse bid for the Boots Ennis vs. Karen Chukhadzhian fight.
It will be bad for Boots Ennis if he is forced to fight Chukhadzhian in Germany on November 9, as it could disrupt Hearn’s plans for a doubleheader with WBC super flyweight champion Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez who faces Pedro Guevara in the co- function defend, spoil.
With Bam Rodriguez off the card and Boots fighting Chukhadzhian alone with a skeleton team on the undercard, it won’t bring in good numbers on DAZN.
If Hearn was considering putting Boots’ November 9th fight on PPV, he can forget about it. Fans will not pay to see a sad rematch between Ennis and defensive artist Chukhadzhian.
“We are talking to Chukhadzhian’s team. Really, we want him to unify, but we can only do that if we take the Chukhadzhian fight,” Eddie Hearn told the Boxing News channell about Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis’ next fight on November 9th.
In the end, Hearn could win to pay Team Chukhadzhian a lot more money for them to come to Philadelphia than if he simply won the purse bid. Once again, Hearn is short-sighted in his view of things.
He could have avoided the Chukhadzhian fight altogether if he had chosen the unification match for Boots Ennis with WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr. negotiated by giving him the extra $500K he wanted. Again, this is another example of Hearn’s short-sighted view of things. He is not willing to invest money without trying to save the long-term consequences of a few pounds.
“So, we’ll probably take that fight (with Chukhadzhian) and see if (Brian) Norman can wake up or, if not, try to fight Stanionis or Barrios,” Hearn said. Boots is in no rush to move to 154 before uniting. So, for me, I would love for him to do it, but it would mean going through with that fight (Chukhadzhian).’
For the next round of negotiations with hearn, Brian Norman Jr’s asking price will likely increase from the $2.2 million he wanted this time. Once Norman Jr’ delivers another sparkling performance in his title defense against Derrieck Cuevas on November 8th, he may want to be in the $3 million ballpark for a unification fight with Ennis.
In other words, Hearn would have missed the boat by being too cheap when negotiating with Norman Jr., destroying Boots’ chances of ever becoming undisputed welterweight champion.
“We will take that fight now. He wants that fight bad,” Hearn said of whether Boots Ennis would move up to 154 if offered a fight against Terence Crawford.
Crawford vs. Ennis fight will never happen because Hearn will never be able to negotiate that fight without His Excellency Turki Alalshikh stepping in to come up with the finances.
With Hearn nickel-and-dipping in an attempt to negotiate deals on behalf of Boots Ennis, he was never going to get a fight against Crawford. The Nebraska native would likely want $20 million for a fight against Boots Ennis, which would put Hearn in a state of shock.
