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NOTES FROM THE BOXING UNDERGROUND: THE ART OF THE (NON) DEAL

By Paul Magno | September 02, 2024
NOTES FROM THE BOXING UNDERGROUND: THE ART OF THE (NON) DEAL

Brian Norman Jr. did the right thing by not grabbing at the Jaron “Boots” Ennis fight, the first million dollar-plus deal offered to him. Norman’s father Brian Sr. and manager Adrian Clark also did right by Norman when they advised against taking that fight.

For those few not familiar with the story behind the Brian Norman big deal rebuff, here’s the Cliffs Notes version:

The IBF ordered their welterweight champion Jaron “Boots” Ennis to defend against mandatory challenger Karen Chukhadzhian. The bout would be a rematch of a widely-panned and boring-as-fuck first encounter in January of 2023-- a bout in which Ennis won every round on every scorecard, but delivered his worst and least-inspiring main stage performance.

Ennis would obviously prefer to not revisit the stylistic nightmare presented by the mobile, awkward Ukrainian.

Ennis’ promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing would also prefer not to have his new star wasting his time (and back-stage grumbling about this fight) in just the second bout of a multi-fight deal.

So, Hearn set out to find a unification for Boots that would have priority in the eyes of the sanctioning body and allow for the mandatory defense to be put off.

Of the three fellow welterweight titlists (WBC champ Mario Barrios, WBA champ Eimantas Stanionis, and WBO champ Brian Norman Jr.), only Norman bit.

Choppy negotiations would ensue, leaking out into the public discourse.

By all accounts, three offers were made from Hearn to Team Norman, beginning with $1 million and ending with $1.5 million. All three were rejected and, as of this writing, with a September 3 purse bid date for Ennis-Chukhadzhian looming, it looks as though the Ennis-Norman unification is dead.

Adrian Clark would make the media rounds on Friday, explaining his side of the story and attempting to counter Hearn’s free-flowing spin via media contacts.

As I wrote over at my other gig as Managing Editor of Boxingnews.co:

“In a Friday morning appearance on the Boxing Brunch show, Norman’s manager Adrian Clark said that the Ennis fight was not necessarily dead and that a contract with [backup up opponent option Derrieck] Cuevas had not yet been signed. He also broke down the $1.5 million offer from Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing and explained how the career-high purse would be whittled down to about half of that due to an assortment of expenses, including a 20% fee paid to Norman’s promoter Top Rank for allowing the fighter to compete outside of their promotional banner.

Clark would go on to say that a $2 million offer from Hearn and Matchroom would probably get the deal done.”

And now, as is almost always the case with boxing disputes, fans have chosen sides, dug in, and are going to war over their unbudging takes regarding things they don’t really and fully understand.

But I’ll not-so-humbly make things real easy for everyone. Brian Norman and his team were right in rejecting the Hearn/Ennis offers.

I’ll preface all of this, though, by saying that Norman wasn’t going to beat Boots Ennis. Sorry.

The kid is good and he shows a lot of promise, but he’s only 23 with a very thin resume and some shaky performances in his recent past. His high-water mark win came against Giovani Santillan when he won the interim WBO title just this past May. Hell, as recently as May, 2023, he was still fighting 8-rounders. He’s very much a work in progress, still.

That’s the big thing that nobody seems to be talking about.

Signing on to fight Ennis was basically him signing on to hand over his WBO belt, which was elevated to full championship level when Terence Crawford officially vacated.

So, why rush to cash-out at such a young age...and for such a relatively moderate purse?

No, Team Norman played all this right.

For two weeks, as the negotiations drama played out, they got Norman an insane amount of free press and saw him become one of the most talked-about fighters in the business during that stretch. His profile has shot through the roof. He’s gone from a nearly unknown entity to, arguably, the second biggest name among the reigning 147 lb. titlists.

Whether they made the Boots fight or not, all of this controversy has made Norman a “must watch” figure coming into his next bout.

Clark seems to be playing the long game with his young fighter, banking on names such as Teofimo Lopez and Devin Haney moving up to 147 and counting on future unification opportunities down the line, even possibly against Ennis. In the meantime, though, Norman needs further development and seasoning, which he should get while reigning over the pretty pedestrian WBO welterweight ranks.

If the goal is to provide this kid with a chance at a long, financially successful career, there’s no need to grab the quick money and run. Yeah, there’s a chance that he could lose to a lesser fighter than Ennis for far less money as he develops. But the smart money for a team that believes in their fighter is in playing things conservatively now and then start pushing for the big fights and the big paydays further down the road when he’s fully matured as a boxer. And, in the immediate future, if money fights do fall into his lap, let them be against easier tasks than Boots Ennis.

It’s not surprising that Norman and his team have taken some flak for not signing on to face Ennis. Much of that flak has come directly from media members.

Boxing media falls on both sides of the political spectrum, right and left. But what most have in common is an almost mean-spirited anti-labor bias against the fighters. Their odd “just take the money, boy,  shut up, and fight” derision flies in the face of their supposed love and respect for the fighters.

Because, at the end of the day, a move like Team Norman’s is about providing their fighter a shot at a sustainable long-term career and not simply jumping at one rushed payout. When all is said and done, Norman will be forgotten and cast aside when he’s finished as a boxer and nobody will be looking out for his physical or financial well-being.

It’s appropriate that, as Brian Norman was being derided for looking after his own bottom line, a chillingly sad story about the struggles of former female champ Heather Hardy was published by Ben Fowlkes of Yahoo Sports.

In the piece, Hardy tells of her boxing-related brain damage and the associated loss of sight that has left her struggling to work and make a living after an 11-year professional career.

“I feel like I gave my sight and my body to pay someone else’s mortgage,” Hardy said. “Now I’m basically disabled and I just need some help with the rent, and where are they? … Before, I was always told, ‘Be quiet, Heather. Don’t cause trouble, Heather.’ Because if I pissed them off they could hurt my career. But my career is over now, so what do I care if [former promoter] Lou DiBella looks bad?”

“I’m not nobody,” she added. “I won a world title as a female on HBO in Madison Square Garden, right? I did an exceptional thing. So why is it that I'm falling down the stairs at the train station and no one's helping me?”

Boxers will all come to the realization that, when the glitz and the glamour and the money are gone, they will be left all alone to fend for themselves. If they don’t have someone looking out for their best interests when they’re young, they will definitely pay the price when they’re older.

But, this is boxing. It could very well be that, by the time this column goes to print, Hearn will have coughed up the additional 500K and Ennis-Norman will be signed. Money talks. Enough of it screams. And even the best laid plans for the future may be cast aside if there’s a fat enough reward behind the risk.

Got something for Magno? Send it here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com

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