‘If Jaron stays at 147 I think there’s a very good chance’: Hearn talks negotiations for Boots vs Teofimo

Eddie Hearn is currently negotiating a fight for Jaron Ennis and Teofimo Lopez but says it’ll be up to Ennis to decide.

Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn talks to Fight Hub TV about a number of topics including Edgar Berlanga constantly sounding off on him, where things stand for a fight between Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis and Teofimo Lopez, and more. Check out some of what Hearn had to say down below.

Hearn on Edgar Berlanga’s beef with him

“It was definitely a little fallout between us post-Canelo in terms of maybe my perception of his star and his value versus his, which if you listen to him talk you can understand that. But he’s a great talker and he’s a great personality and he’s a good fighter, so he’s got a great fight on July 12 and I think a lot of what he does is for the cameras, but a lot of what he does is kind of made himself believe.

“He believed that he could go to Puerto Rico after the Canelo fight in a poor fight and sellout a really big arena there. The intel and the data suggested otherwise so we couldn’t really reach a deal on that but we had a clause in his contract that we signed for the Canelo fight that we would give him a comeback fight on the undercard after Canelo, which is what he wanted just to get a win.

“And then we did that, he didn’t like the fact he was on the undercard and it was that kind of look, but that’s what his manager requested in the contract, so we were only following the contract.

“I think at the end of the day when you do such a great job for someone like we did, you can really only shake hands and say maybe we don’t always agree on everything but I know you were true to your word to the point in the contract, you delivered everything you promised you’d do and in the process we made him well over double digits for three fights — and he’s Edgar Berlanga.

“Not being funny, it’s not like he’s Canelo Alvarez or you know — he’s a good fighter, he’s going to be in a fun fight, it’ll be a tough fight for both.”

On negotiations for a Teofimo Lopez vs Jaron Ennis fight

“So we’ve been talking to [Alalshikh] about Boots against Teofimo. I think originally it was more October, it could be around August time now. We like the fight. I think for Boots, after the Chukhadzhian fight he was really considering a move to ‘54. The Stanionis unification came around and that’s what he wanted to do more than anything. So we did that, he performed really well in that fight, and now it’s like ‘do I stay at ‘47 or ‘54, what are my options? Can you get me another belt?’

“And I’m like ‘well, right now Brian Norman’s on the missing list — he’s disappearing to Japan for a fight — and Pacquiao is fighting Barrios. So, no is the answer. Ok, ‘well, what do we have at ‘54?’ Then out of the blue the Teofimo Lopez fight comes around. So it may not be a massive motivator to Ennis because it’s just a defense, but it’s a big fight and obviously the money’s good, the profile’s good.

“So I think my answer is if Jaron stays at 147, I think there’s a very good chance he’ll fight Teofimo Lopez next. And I think if he doesn’t fight Teofimo he’ll probably moves to ‘54...In an ideal world we’d fight the other champions very quickly but it doesn’t always play out like that.

“We’re under no pressure (to make a decision) time-wise, only on the Teofimo fight and that really came like three or four days ago...We’re negotiating, that’s what we’re doing. It’s a massive fight, it’s a great fight and my recommendation to Jaron is if we’re staying then I think we should definitely consider it.”

On how difficult it will be to strike a deal with Teofimo with respect to the financial terms

“As I understand it (Teofimo’s) deal is in place with Saudi. Our deal is not. Obviously we’re the champion going into that fight so generally the challenger will get less money but we’ll have to see what the offer is and if that’s something Boots wants to do.”

On if a Ryan Garcia vs Devin Haney rematch should still happen

“Of course the luster has fallen right off it. It’s still an amazing fight but I just feel like it can be bigger than it is right now and I think it can be better. Let’s be honest, that looked like two guys that were out of sorts, low on confidence. So why not let them fight when they’re in form, confident, and they can really give us a great fight. And I think they need another fight each.”