Brian Norman Sr. says he doesn’t understand why promoter Eddie Hearn is pushing hard to lock in a unification fight between his son, WBO welterweight champion Norman Jr., and Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis before their June 19th defense against Jin Sasaki.
Norman Sr. thinks Hearn is trying to “muddy the water” and “tarnish” their name. He suspects that Hearn will lock in another fight against someone else.
“You hear the dates he said. He said, ‘October, November, December.’ You can negotiate a fight for [those months] in June. You can do that. June 19th is our fight. We can start negotiations the next week,” said Brian Norman Sr. to MillCity Boxing about them being able to negotiate a fight against Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis for one of the three months that promoter Eddie Hearn mentioned today in an interview.
What Norman Sr. is failing to see is that by Hearn locking his son into a contract with Boots Ennis now, he would be getting him at a lower price than if he waited until after his fight against Jin Sasaki. If Norman Jr. destroys him on June 19th in Tokyo, his popularity is going to go through the roof.
His value will shoot way up, and Hearn must make a much bigger offer. He won’t do that because it would require an investment. If Norman Jr. asks for $4 million, will Hearn be willing to invest? I doubt it. So, Ennis might as well move up if Hearn doesn’t want to emulate John D. Rockefeller and invest in his fighter.
Norman Sr.’s Suspicion
“I’m confused about them [Hearn] putting this out here at this time. I don’t know,” said Norman Sr. when asked if he thinks Hearn and Ennis will choose to fight someone else next rather than Brian Jr. “We asked for the fight after our fight [Jin Sasaki].”
Hearn has got to do that. With Boots pushing him to make the unification fights for him, Hearn had to show that he was trying to set up fights with the one available champion. However, Norman Sr. isn’t going to negotiate with him until after the Sasaki fight. Hearn doesn’t want to wait. He wants to negotiate now while Norman Jr’s value is still low. He’s like a stock. If he destroys Sasaki, his stock is going to soar, and Hearn won’t be able to afford him. I mean, he can afford Norman Jr. if he were willing to invest, but he probably won’t. He’ll be too tight-fisted.
“Here it is, four weeks before our fight. The fight gets offered. We said, ‘Yes.’ They said, ‘Okay, let’s sign the contract.’ We said, ‘No. Why would we do that? We’ve got a fight locked in.’ That’s a bad omen. You don’t lock in fights when you’ve got a fight in front of you. That’s the definition of looking past your opponent,” said Norman Sr. about Hearn.
Why the Rush?
It’s not only a bad omen. It would be foolish for him to sign a contract for the Boots fight before Norman Jr. has fought Sasaki. The way that Hearn is pressuring, you can see what his game is. He knows that his value will go up.
“What if we win [against Sasaki] and Top Rank comes back and we get what we want – A co-promotion. We do it at a better place for better money. The question is, ‘Are we willing to fight?’ The answer is, hell, yes. He’s next. He [Ennis] didn’t call us next. You can’t find an interview where he said he wants to fight my so,” said Norman Sr.
Name Tarnish Claim
“Because he wants to muddy the water and tarnish our name as much as he can,” said Norman Sr. about Hearn, saying in an interview that he offered a deal to Team Norman Jr. and it was declined. Part of me thinks they’re going to pull some bull s*** and lock in another fight and say we weren’t willing to fight. But we already said we were willing to fight and we’re saying it now.”
Last Updated on 05/13/2025
2025-05-13 05:16:17
