Is Eddie Hearn Sabotaging Jaron Ennis’ Career? Norman Sr. think so

Brian Norman Sr. says promoter Eddie Hearn doesn’t care about Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis and is “question” his talent after his lackluster performance against Karen Chukhadzhian on 9 November.

Norman Sr. states that Hearn does not want Boots to date Vergil Ortiz Jr. fight because he doesn’t want to see him lose to one of Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya’s fighters. Brian Sr. says he thinks Hearn told His Excellency Turki Alalshikh to send a contract with 147 as the weight for the Boots fight, knowing that Vergil Jr. would refuse. It would make him and De La Hoya look bad as if they were ducking Boots (33-0, 29 KOs).

That step will serve two purposes:

1. Ennis would avoid an almost certain loss to Vergil
2. To make Boots look scared

IBF Title “Excuse”

Norman Sr. points out that comments Hearn made about Ennis worrying about having to vacate his IBF welterweight title if he moves up to face Ortiz Jr. to challenge for his WBC interim 154-lb belt is nonsense. Hearn knows that’s not the case.

Boots already defended against his IBF mandatory Karen Chukhadzhian on November 9, so the sanctioning body would allow him to move up for one fight against Vergil Jr. Brian Sr. say it was a “Play” on Hearn’s side by saying that Ennis would lose his IBF 147-lb title if he moved up to 154 for a one-off against Vergil Jr.

Hearn knows that Boots won’t lose his IBF title, but he just wanted an excuse to give the media so he could ditch the fight against Ortiz Jr., which he would probably lose.

“An offer has been made to (WBC welterweight champion Mario) Barrios for Conor Benn. Why? Eddie doesn’t give a *** about Boots. He never gave up on Boots. He played him from the start,” Brian Norman Sr. said MillCity Boxingtalking about Eddie Hearn not caring about Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, who he promotes.

“Boots had a lackluster performance in his last fight (Karen Chukhadzhian). So, Eddie questions Boots now. Eddie hears what people are saying about Boots. So, now you have to think about his concern that he lost to Oscar (De La Hoya). I don’t think he (Ennis) wanted him to fight him (Vergil Ortiz Jr) anyway.

“I don’t believe Turki Alalshikh was behind the wheel of that contract for 147. Who had personal dealings with Turki Alalshikh? Eddie Hearn. It’s a play. He told him to do it. There’s no reason for them to do that when they knew that Vergil moved Ortiz up for the same reason that he can’t make the weight.”

Conor Over Boots?

Norman Sr’s comment about an “offer” being made to WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios for him to defend against his 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 get a fight with Barrios for him. But here he is, making an offer to Barrios for him to fight Conor, who has never beaten a world class fighter and is considered the spoiled son of a famous British fighter, Nigel Benn.

“Boots already defended his (IBF 147-lb) title against his mandatory (Chukhadzhian). There is no reason for him not to go to 154 to fight Vergil Ortiz. I think Eddie told Turki Alalshikh 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 were to move up to 154 for the Vergil fight went right over the heads of casual fans and the media. Norman Sr. is right Ennis can go up to 154 without losing his IBF title. Hearn will just have to inform the IBF in advance what they plan to do to receive clearance, and then it won’t be a problem.

“He might have done it so Vergil would say, ‘No, because I can’t do 147.’ He may have tried to get Oscar to turn it down to save his own face. Now that it’s not happening, it looks like it’s backfired on him and it looks like Boots did it,” Norman Sr. said.