Eddie Hearn has grand plans for Boots Ennis in Philly. Can he make them happen?

PHILADELPHIA, PA — The billboard flashed in black-and-white last Friday in front of the Wells Fargo Center that depicted Jaron “Boots” Ennis and Cody Crowley’s faces on it. It blared for the first time the coming of a boxing match. The building’s main occupants, the Philadelphia 76ers and Philadelphia Flyers, will not be in the building for a while, so Matchroom President Eddie Hearn had the space and time to fulfill a promise he made to rising boxing star Ennis to have his first title defense in his hometown of Philadelphia.

The Ring’s No. 2 welterweight contender, Ennis (31-0, 28 knockouts) will defend the IBF title that Terence Crawford vacated against mandatory Canadian southpaw challenger Cody Crowley (22-0, 9 KOs).

Boxing has bought into Boots Ennis years ago. Can Hearn convince Philadelphia, an overrated sports town that has not recently done well supporting its boxing stars, to do the same?

Hearn feels the May 10 kickoff press conference at the Wells Fargo Center to announce the fight was a good start. There may have been roughly 500 people there, interspersed with legitimate media and fanboy, pseudo media. On Thursday, May 9, Hearn received some encouraging feedback when Matchroom put out 4,500 tickets on a pre-sale. The tickets went. After the presser, Hearn felt that number could grow to 7,000.

“We are going to do a minimum 10,000,” Hearn predicted. “We may sell this (21,000-seat capacity arena) out. All of a sudden the word gets out. The tickets are reasonable (they are, starting at $30) and we have not even given out fighter tickets yet. We are looking to get three or four young fighters on TV who will be selling 300 or 400 tickets each, so we are in a real brilliant place. A lot of it is luck, and some hope, but we could not believe the response. If we sell 10,000 or 12,000 tickets to Cody Crowley, who is a good fighter, just imagine when Conor Benn or Mario Barrios comes here.

“I want to make the special announcement that the Wells Fargo Center is now officially the home of Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis.”

Watching in the front row last week was Philadelphia’s Stephen Fulton, the former the WBC/WBO junior featherweight titlist and The Ring’s current No. 1 122-pound contender. Fulton had to go to Japan to fight four-weight world champion Naoya Inoue (27-0, 24 knockouts) last July. The trip garnered Fulton the largest payday of his career.

But before Fulton left for Japan, he told The Ring, “I’m the only world champion in Philadelphia (the Philadelphia Phillies lost the World Series and the Eagles lost the Super Bowl). It’s like no one knows that. It’s why I said I would never fight in Philadelphia. I get more love across the country than I do in my own city. If I beat Inoue, everyone will want to support me. They can keep the love. I don’t care for it at this point.”

When all-time great Hall of Famer Bernard Hopkins fought at the now defunct Spectrum in his 16th middleweight title defense in March 2003 against fleeing Frenchman Morrade Hakkar, the arena was sparsely filled. About four rounds in, the bout drew the infamous Philly cheer, boos began raining down on the fighters until Hakkar failed to answer the bell for the ninth round.

Crowley was very engaging during the press conference. He drew jeers, some applause and his trainer/manager Anthony Girges spurred the ire of Bozy Ennis, Boots’ trainer, manager and father.

“This was a massive announcement for us (that Matchroom signed Boots), and the news and ramifications that it had in the world of boxing were incredible,” Hearn told the gathered crowd. “The numbers, the excitement, finally, (Boots) was going to get let off his leash to show the world how great he is. The most important thing for me was to bring him home to Philadelphia and we made happen. When you have a fighter as special as this, in a city as great as this, and people don’t understand the history of boxing in this city. How has he never fought here? Well now, it is time for that to change.”

We will see.

Team Ennis complimented Crowley for taking the fight. Bozy Ennis and Girges hugged out their differences.

“There is really no pressure,” Boots said in fighting in his hometown. “I’ve been in this game since I was a baby. All of this stuff is normal to me. This is like me being in my house right now with my feet up. Crowley has more pressure than me. It’s going to get nasty July 13. My main focus is Cody Crowley, after this, I’m looking to go undisputed.”

Boots and Bozy are both old-school when it comes to fight promotions. They are as laid back and chilled as a fighter and trainer can be. They do not play the “hype game.” But last Friday, the two showed a side of themselves, an animated, flamboyant side, rarely expressed publicly.

“That was me being me, but I was laughing the whole time, and I like when people talk, and poor Cody is going to get it,” Boots said. “I was enjoying myself, going back-and-forth a little bit. Anytime anyone talks, a bad beating is coming.”

Hearn has had a history of selling fighters in their hometowns. He did well with Devin Haney in his WBC junior welterweight title defense against Regis Prograis last December, fitting 17,000 in San Francisco’s Chase Center. The last time Boots fought in Philly he attracted an overflow crowd at the 2300 Arena, a few miles away from the Wells Fargo Center. That overflow crowd was around 1,500. It is a little different when an expected crowd is supposed to be 15,000.

“I think I can do it, getting people back out here in Philly to watch fight again,” Boots said. “This is just the start.”

The Philadelphia boxing community and fans, and they are many, are hoping Boots and Hearn are right.

Much is being invested on it. The cost to post the large sign that stood in front of the Wells Fargo Center last Friday said so.

Joseph Santoliquito is a Hall of Fame, award-winning sportswriter who has been working for Ring Magazine/RingTV.com since October 1997 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.
Follow @JSantoliquito

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