Fresh off his dominant victory over Eimantas Stanionis in Atlantic City, IBF, WBA, and Ring Magazine welterweight champion Jaron Ennis isn’t wasting any time—the 27-year-old has already reignited his long-standing feud with WBO titleholder Brian Norman Jr. The pair has been linked to a fight against each other for a long time.
However, it never came close to materializing, with both parties putting the blame on the other side. For instance, Eddie Hearn, Ennis’ promoter, has previously claimed that he offered Norman Jr. a fight against Ennis in the latter’s hometown of Philadelphia for $1.7 million. However, Norman’s team refused the offer, asking for $2.2 million instead.
Norman Jr. seemed open to fighting in a neutral territory for $1.7 million, but Ennis’ team didn’t agree with it. The feud further escalated when both sides took digs at each other on social media and in interviews. Naturally, this led to Ennis’ side accusing Norman of avoiding a fight against him while Norman countered claiming he had accepted an offer.
Past sparring sessions between the two also added tension, as Ennis’ father, Bozy Ennis, claimed his son dominated Norman Jr, even dropping him with body shots. He suggested that Norman’s reluctance to fight his son stemmed from those sparring sessions. However, Norman Jr. downplayed these claims, calling the sparring sessions great.
The pair eventually went on to fight different opponents, as Norman defended his title against Derrieck Cuevas, and Ennis fought his mandatory Karen Chukhadzian. All this came to a head when a reporter pressed Ennis about Norman Jr. during the post-fight press conference of the Stanionis fight on Saturday.
“Brian Norman is not good,” Ennis said confidently, as his father jumped in to claim that Norman Jr. is using his son’s name to build up his own. “They ain’t gonna do nothing but talk,” the 27-year-old added. ‘Boots’ felt Norman Jr. is on a social media tour, and they don’t really want a fight. Ennis used a past offer made to Norman Jr. to expose the WBO champion.
“If any of y’all in here be $100,000 in your last fight. Y’all got offered 2 million to fight me. What y’all doing?” Ennis asked, noting, “Y’all going to fight me, right? Exactly! That’s closed in the story right there. Closed key.” It’s worth noting that despite Norman’s championship status, his fight purses are rather low.
If he had taken Hearn’s offer, it would have been his biggest career payday. Regardless, while Ennis is downplaying Norman as an opponent, his promoter seems to be on a mission to make that fight happen.
Eddie Hearn eyes Jaron Ennis vs. Brian Norman Jr.
Eddie Hearn is targeting a high-stakes unification clash between Jaron Ennis and Brian Norman Jr. following Ennis’ latest win. With the WBA and IBF titles now in his possession, Hearn believes it’s time to push for greatness. “Jaron’s already showed us that he’s about legacy and beating champions,” Hearn said.
“The greatest achievement for any fighter is to become undisputed.” Norman, promoted by Top Rank, has yet to be secured, but Hearn revealed, “I spoke to Bob Arum during the week – he made it clear to me they want to try and make that fight.” He added, “There’s probably close to 10 times the biggest payday of Brian Norman’s career to fight ‘Boots’ Ennis.”
If Norman can’t be tempted, WBC champ Mario Barrios and mandatory challenger Shakhram Giyasov may be next. “Everything’s falling in line,” Ennis said. “It’s perfect timing.”
That said, a fight between Jaron Ennis and Brian Norman Jr. may become a real possibility after it fell apart last year. However, it would be interesting to see whether Eddie Hearn is successful in making it happen. Do you think the fight will happen? If yes, who would win the fight?
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