Trainer Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis is blaming WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr. for why negotiations for a unification fight against IBF champ Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis fell apart for a clash last November in Philadelphia.
Bozy says Norman Jr. didn’t want to agree to the $1.7 million that promoter Eddie Hearn had offered him because he said he had to pay his promoter, Bob Arum, and other expenses. Norman Jr. wanted the offer to be increased to $2.2 million. Norman Jr. and his father were willing to fight on neutral territory in Las Vegas for $1.7 million, but Ennis’s team didn’t want that. They wanted to go to Philadelphia only.
Some fans believe that Boots and Bozy Ennis didn’t want the problems that Brian Norman Jr. would have presented. He’s like another Vergil Ortiz Jr. type of fighter, the kind that Ennis would avoid like the plague.
In other words, Brian wanted the offer bumped up by $500,000, and Team Ennis was unwilling to do so. As such, Boots got stuck defending against his IBF mandatory Karen Chukhadzhian on November 9th at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia and looked awful in that fight.
Karen schooled Ennis for 12 rounds but lost a questionable decision. In hindsight, it would have been smarter for Ennis and his promoters to pony up the $500K that Norman Jr. was asking for.
“I don’t even want to put the light on him right now because they do enough talking themselves, but they know the truth,” said trainer Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis to Ring Magazine, sidestepping discussion about why the negotiations with WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr. fell apart last September for a unification fight against IBF champ Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis.
Fans believe that promoter Eddie Hearn didn’t want to invest in Boots Ennis by bumping up the offer to Brian Norman Jr. the $500K that he and his dad were asking for. they wanted an increase from $1.7 million to $2.2 million for them to fight ‘Boots’ in his hometown of Philadelphia at the Wells Fargo Center.
Norman Jr. was willing to accept the $1.7 million if the fight were staged on neutral territory in Las Vegas, but that deal wasn’t accepted. When you look at it from Norman Jr’s standpoint, it was clear that Ennis didn’t want the fight. He or his promoter Hearn could have increased the offer $500K to get it to $2.2M for Norman Jr. to fight in Philadelphia or they could have fought in Las Vegas. They didn’t. So, whose fault is that?
“Just like when they [Norman Jr] was offered so much amount of money [$1.7 million] and turned it down,” Bozy Ennis continued. “$750 [thousand], $1.5 [million] and $1.7. When you fought [Giovani] Santillian, and you only got $100,000, and you’re talking about that wasn’t enough that Eddie [Hearn] was offering you enough money. S***, you only made $100,000 [before Norman Jr. had captured the WBO welterweight title].”
Trainer/father Bozy Ennis is using a poor example for his argument for why the negotiations broke down. Mentioning Norman Jr’s pay for his fight against Giovani Santillian in 2024 is irrelevant to the negotiations because that clash took place before Brian Norman Jr. had become the WBO welterweight champion. It was a fight for the interim title, not the full belt.
“Someone is offering you $750,000. ‘I got to pay [Top Rank promoter] Bob [Arum], and I got to pay this,’” said Bozy Ennis about what Brian Norman Jr. had supposedly said for why he declined the $1.7 million offer to fight Boots Ennis last November. “Yeah, you’re going to have enough money left. So, the same thing when you had $100,000 [for Giovani Santillan]. Then, when you’re offered $1.5, you’re going to walk away with a nice piece of money. So don’t use that as an excuse.
“The last one when they offered was $1.7. So come on. If you really wanted the fight, you should have took the fight,”‘ said Bozy Ennis about Norman Jr.
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