Karen Chukhadzian’s promoters at P2M Box Promotion have won the purse bid for a fight against IBF welterweight champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis for November, topping the bid by Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn by $250,000.
This is terrible news for Boots Ennis, and his career hopes at 147, signaling that his time in this weight class may be over.
Social Media Backlash Against Hearn
People on social media say that Ennis’ promoter, Eddie Hearn, has failed him and is more focused on other fighters in his Matchroom stable, like Shakur Stevenson and Anthony Joshua.
This means that Boots Ennis won’t defend his IBF title in his hometown of Philadelphia in front of 21,000 at the Wells Fargo Center, as Hearn had discussed. Unless Karen wants to fight in Philadelphia, Boots will be looking at traveling to Europe to defend his IBF strap if he doesn’t vacate.
Jake Donovan reports that Hearn lost the bid to Karen’s promoters. This puts the unbeaten ‘Boots’ Ennis in a difficult position: He may need to travel overseas to Europe to defend his IBF 147-lb title in Ukraine.
If Ennis (32-0, 29 KOs) vacates his IBF title, that would explain Hearn’s reluctance to pay the $500K to get the unification fight made with WBO champion Brian Norman Jr. and to win the purse bid for the mandatory defense against Chukhadzian (24-2, 13 KOs).
Hearn’s Decisions Under Scrutiny
If Hearn already decided that Boots should vacate his welterweight title and move up to 154, his failure to negotiate a very easily negotiable fight with Brian Norman is now understandable. Fans on social media feel that Hearn doesn’t want to invest money in Boots’ future and isn’t willing to lose money on his fights.
If Boots does vacate his IBF title, he could move up to 154 and potentially fight former WBA junior middleweight champion Israil Madrimov or Serhii Bohachuk on one of His Excellency Turki Alalshikh’s Riyadh Season cards. That would make things easier for Hearn, who wouldn’t have to come up with the money to pay.
Assuming Boots Ennis, 27, does choose to keep his IBF title and travel to Europe to defend against Chukhadzian, fans will criticize Hearn for blowing it with the negotiations with Norman and then making a second mistake by failing to win the purse bid to stage the fight with Karen in Philadelphia.
