Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn spent some time talking to Fight Hype about the latest news in the boxing world of Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis supposedly turning down an offer to fight against Vergil Ortiz.
Hearn admits that there was an offer for Boots to face Ortiz at 154 but that Boots had very little time to consider the offer and instead let his wishes be known that he preferred to remain at 147 for a title unification, reasoning that he never had the chance to beat an actual world champion in the ring thus far. Here’s some of what Hearn had to say on the subject below.
Hearn on the rumors of Boots turning down an opportunity to fight Ortiz and being called a duck for it
“I think it’s been built up a little bit more than what it is. I’ll tell you, it’s quite simple. After his last fight he said in the the ring ‘I may move up to 154, I need a little bit of time,’ blah, blah, blah. We started talking about the landscape, we’ve made a lot of offers to guys at 147 to unify against Boots. We also spoke to (Alalshikh) about the potential for an Ortiz against Boots fight.
“When we received the initial offer it was at 147 lbs, which surprised me. I went back to those guys to double check and then they confirmed, no, it was at 154. I then spoke to Boots and said you need to make a decision, are we moving to ‘54 or are we staying to unify at 147. And he sort of said to me ‘well how long do I got to make a decision,’ I said ‘about 24 hours, 48 hours.’ And he said ‘I want to unify at 147, that’s what I want to do.’
“So I know that everybody loves that fight but whilst it’s in a different weight class, it’s not something that we’re going to do now, you will see Boots in a massive fight at 147 next. You can take this to the bank, he will not be moving to 154 and fighting somebody else. We had to make a decision then and there about what he wants to do next and his decision was to stay and unify at 147. That’s what will happen next.
“I think it got blown a little bit out of proportion and I was honest in that when we received the offer it was at 147. It wasn’t what I believed was the case so when I went back a couple of days later they confirmed it was at 154 and then Boots had to make a decision quite quickly ‘do you want to give up your belt or do you want to move up to ‘54?’ And he said ‘I want to unify.’ So you will see him in a unification next.”
On what his personal preference for Boots was for his next move
“I want to see him unify, if I’m honest. The frustration has been we couldn’t make the unification before and he had to fight Chukhadzhian. Ideally we would’ve unified then and I think if we’d done that I think he would’ve potentially taken the fight against Ortiz. I love the fight against Ortiz — so does Boots by the way. I think style-wise, everything, it’s a great matchup. But when he tells me he wants to stay at ‘47 to unify, I can’t blame him for that and it’s not like he wants to stay at ‘47 to take an easy fight.
“He’s up for anybody in the division but I just feel like — you know what he said to me, he said ‘the reality is I never really won a championship at 147.’ He said ‘I won the interim title then upgraded me to full champion.’ He said ‘so I’m yet to fight a champion at 147 and that’s what I really want to do.’ So when the fighter tells me that, I respect it.
“I don’t mind the decision. I would’ve loved him to be part of a Riyadh Season card and we planned for Boots to be on a Riyadh Season card with (Alalshikh) but it would involve him vacating his title and moving up and he’s not going to do that. So once he decides he’s not going to do that, the fight’s not really there.
“He’s a bit disappointed with the (fan) reaction because if it was a defense of his 147 (title) or if he was a 154 fighter and he turned it down, I think you’d have a lot of grounds to give him criticism. But whilst it’s not his weight class, it’s a simple decision…if he moves to ‘54 the Ortiz fight, for me, is the perfect fight for Boots.
“I need to bounce back with something big for Boots, because if we’re going to turn down Ortiz and make this decision, we better deliver something that the fans go ‘fair.’ And I promise you when we make our decision you guys will turn around and go ‘alright, we wanted to see the Ortiz fight but we get it and this is a great fight.”