Countdown to Snoozageddon: Clock is Ticking on Eddie Hearn’s Push to Avoid Boots-Karen 2

The clock is ticking on Eddie Hearn’s mission to get his newly-signed fighter, Jaron” Boots Ennis, out of a pointless mandatory defense and, in turn, save boxing from a second serving of a really crappy matchup.

On July 31, the IBF ordered their welterweight champ Ennis to defend against mandatory challenger Karen Chukhadzhian. Seeing that talks have been non-existent between the two camps, the sanctioning body, per Jake Donovan of RingTV, has now scheduled a purse bid for September 3.

Ennis-Chukhadzhian is a rematch of a widely-panned, seriously underwhelming January, 2023 bout that saw the usually electrifying Ennis deliver his worst and least inspiring main stage performance. Although the Philly fighter won every round on every judge’s scorecard, he looked wildly unimpressive against the mobile and awkward Ukraine native. The showing had many observers questioning whether Ennis was, indeed, as good as hyped.

The part 2 of that buzzkill matchup is something Ennis’ promoter Eddie Hearn would most definitely prefer not to have for his guy in just the second fight of his Matchroom multi-fight deal.

The 27-year-old Ennis has welterweight unification in mind and then a move up to 154. Needless to say, he does NOT want a backwards step of a bout against someone almost guaranteed to make his rising star look less brilliant.

To push off the Chukhadzhian obligation, Hearn has been trying to put together a unification bout that the IBF would prioritize over their mandatory defense.

So far, the only reigning 147 lb. champ to bite is 23-year-old WBO titlist Brian Norman Jr, but negotiations have reportedly been choppy between the two parties, with conflicting accounts of what’s been happening behind the scenes.

“It’s been days…We’ve waited 3 days…for another offer to even come back,” Norman’s father Brian Sr. said via Instagram Live on Thursday. “We waited three days before they reached back out. It’s crazy. So anyway when we did, they came back out, still low, still short. We can make this fight happen if Eddie Hearn is who he say he is. He’s got Turki Alalshikh in his corner. We can make this work. We most definitely did not price ourselves [out]. That’s why this is even being talked about because you know Eddie wouldn’t have had a problem coming out, telling you we out-priced ourselves. We did not at all. We’re ready to go. My son is not optimistic anymore about this fight happening. I totally am because I know my son can beat Jaron Ennis and this is a great opportunity. But I can’t let him go out like that. I can’t let him do it for what they’re trying to say. I can’t do that. But either way it goes, we’re ready to go…Where you at, Eddie? Let’s go.”

Hearn, meanwhile, has a very different take on the negotiations.

“We’ve sent 3 [offers] already,” the promoter tweeted Thursday afternoon. “The team are either deluded or just using Boots name. Interviews dropping soon, hopefully they are more serious than their negotiations suggest.”

In a subsequent Instagram Live video, Norman Sr. revealed that the three offers made to his son saw him earning less than a third, less than half, and then a half of what Boots Ennis made in his last fight versus David Avanesyan in July. These were financial terms deemed unacceptable by Team Norman for what would be a champion vs. champion unification bout.

As time passes and the September 3 purse bid approaches, there will be more and more pressure on Hearn to get the Norman fight done to keep Ennis happy. That may mean cutting a much more generous deal than he had hoped to cut.