Brian Norman Risks Pricing Himself Out Of Boots Unification
For the last couple of weeks, WBO welterweight champion Brian “The Assassin II” Norman Jr. (26-0, 20 KO’s) and his father have been going on every boxing outlet they can chasing a fight with IBF 147-pound champion Jaron “Boots” Ennis (32-0, 29 KO’s). Initially, Team Norman insisted that someone on Ennis’ side was not being truthful about them wanting a fight. Now that this has been rectified, Team Norman is now saying that The Assassin II is being short changed by far too much a margin to accept.
After taking to social media, Brian Norman’s father explained their feelings on the matter.
“Eddie Hearn, you trying to spin this! The first offer was less than a third of what Boots made for his fight with David Avanesyan. David Avanesyan is only famous for getting knocked out by Bud . . . the first offer was that and it was literally just a bit more than what you gave David Avanesyan and my son is a world champion. He brings to the table the exact same thing that Boots brings to the table. Boots doesn’t bring anything to the table that my son brings. It’s a unification bout. He has his belt, my son has his belt, my son is taking all the chances, all the risk. Got it?!”
“The second offer was less than half of what Boots made his last fight, the third offer was half of what Boots made his last fight. To be exact, it was literally half of what Boots made last year. So imagine what Boots is going to make in this unification bout! Considerably more than he made in his last bout. So not speaking actual numbers, I’m speaking actual facts. You tell me I am lying! That’s what it was, you [Hearn] did not want to make this fight. The only reason you did this was to tell Boots and his team that you tried to make the fight!”
COUNT YOUR OWN MONEY!
The first thing that most people will say, “well how much did Brian Norman Jr. make his last fight?”. It appears that Norman Jr. earned a little under $200,000 for his last prizefight versus Giovani Santillan. If this is in fact the case, then earning a million dollars or more would be five times his biggest payday to date. So while Team Norman can be mad about Ennis making $3 million in his last tour of duty, this sounds like a clear case of pocket watching gone bad.
Naturally, they both have belts and are looking for the right marquee opponent to truly verify their claims at being the best in the division. At the same time however, Norman Jr. is nowhere near the same household name that Boots is. Fans, hardcore and casual alike, have been calling for either Terence Crawford or Errol Spence Jr. to fight him for roughly two years now. Many of boxing’s biggest personalities have gone on record saying that Ennis is the next big thing in the 147-pound division. Team Norman cannot say the same thing.
This is no knock on The Assassin II, but it’s just a plain fact that outside of hardcore boxing fans, you’ll be hard pressed to find casual fans who know much, if anything, about him. So again, complaining about the purse solely based on watching the opponent’s paydays while not factoring in your own doesn’t make a great deal of sense at the negotiating table. And it makes even less when you don’t command the same notoriety or drawing power, either.
LEAP OF FAITH
Love him or hate him, the example provided by Devin Haney is still strong in the industry. This is mentioned to reference his decision to take short money and travel to enemy ground to fight George Kambosos to become an undisputed champion. Haney is well documented for saying he knew it was a bad deal but also he knew he’d be in the driver’s seat, if he won.
So, having faith in himself, he made the fight and claimed those belts. Also, Haney was a much more widely recognized fighter than Norman is now. So, if Brian Norman actually believes he can beat Boots, why is earning five times or more your biggest payday to become a unified champion such a bad deal? Like Haney and Kambosos, you can negotiate a rematch. If The Assassin II is victorious, he can then get the lion’s share of the spoils.
So is this fight, with all that’s on the table, not worth the risk? Clearly, Team Norman does not believe so. Let’s stay tuned to see if this can be worked out in the ninth hour, or if this duel is really dead in the water.
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