Jaron “Boots” Ennis believes he is the best welterweight in the world today, and he wants to unify the titles to prove it. Ennis currently holds the WBA and the IBF titles at 147 pounds, and he wants to fight Brian Norman Jr, who holds the WBO belt, and Mario Barrios, who is currently in possession of the WBC title.
And recently, Ennis’ promoter Eddie Hearn laid into Norman Jr by stating how the WBO champion turned down a very lucrative offer to fight Boots. Hearn said that it sure looks as though Norman, 27-0(21) is afraid of Ennis.
Fighters First rips back: “We won’t negotiate mid-camp”
But not so fast, says a representative of Fighters First Management who look after Norman. Jolene Mizzone explained to The Ring why no deal was able to be currently reached with regards to a fight between Norman and Ennis, this because Norman has an upcoming fight to focus on in Japan and that he is currently 100 percent focused on this fight. It was the same thing with Boots, Mizzone said, when he was going into his fight with Eimantas Stanionis, with Boots, 34-0(30) not even wanting to talk about any other fight at that time.
Norman is not afraid of Boots, Mizzone made clear, with him instead wanting the fight but not until he’s dealt with Jin Sasaki, 19-1-1(17) next month.
“What people don’t understand is that a fight like this, when you have two champions, there is a lot to be negotiated in a contract,” Mizzone said, referring to an Ennis-Norman fight. “It’s not just a standard contract, like a state contract. We treat our fighters as partners, so they are very involved when we negotiate. Our response to them [Hearn and Matchroom] was, we are very interested in the fight, but we would not agree to sign or negotiate until after Brian fights. It’s just like when Boots fought Stanionis and didn’t want to talk about anyone else, let alone sign for another fight.”
“Hearn likes his own narrative better than the truth”
The way Mizzone tells it, Hearn “likes his own narrative better than the truth.” Mizzone went on to say that Adrian Clark of Fighters First reached out to Hearn “but didn’t get a response.”
Mizzone is adamant Norman does want to fight Boots, but he simply has business to attend to first. And Mizzone makes a great point when she reminds us all what can happen if a fighter looks past the guy he’s set to fight, this as he eyes another bout down the road.
“Ask Ryan Garcia, Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury, to name a few, how it went in their fights when they negotiated another fight before the one in front of them,” Mizzone said.
Norman and Ennis may well fight later this year, but of course both sides have to be able to work with each other and make a sensible deal to make it happen.
