Brian Norman Sr. says IBF welterweight champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis will be ducking WBO champ Norman Jr. (26-0, 20 KOs) if he chooses to face Teofimo Lopez in October. Ennis is expected to fight Teo.
The Money Fight
He won’t turn down the money offered to him by Turki Alalshikh to face the smaller fighter. It’s a more winnable fight for Boots than the one he recently turned down against Vergil Ortiz Jr., which would have been a nightmare for him. Ennis can be bought, as long it doesn’t involve Vergil Jr.
Norman Sr. notes that Boots (33-0, 29 KOs) has been talking a lot about wanting to unify that 147-lb division, but when it comes to his son, Brian Jr., he’ll forget about it and take the easy route against 140-lb fighter Teofimo in October if the two win their next fights.
Fighters have lost their fear of Boots after watching him get exposed by Karen Chukhadzhain last November. They see weakness in the Philadelphia native and realize that he’s not the fighter that they’d thought.
“Boots ain’t calling us. He don’t want that work,” said Brian Norman Sr. to @Millcityboxing about Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis not showing interest in fighting WBO 147-lb champion Brian Norman Jr.
“He probably would,” said Norman Sr. to when asked if he thinks Boots Ennis will go the Teofimo route next rather than fight Brian Jr. after his unification clash against Eimantas Stanionis on April 12th.
Boot’ confidence might not be where it needs to be for him to take a risky fight against the unbeaten 24-year-old Brian Norman Jr. right now. He would need to have strong self-belief to take that fight, and he would need to be ready to go to war because that’s the style that Norman Jr. uses.
Ennis “Ducking”?
“He’ll be a b****,” Norman Sr. continued about Ennis. “We’re right here. You said you want unifications only. You ducked Vergil [Ortiz Jr]. I’m not going to call him ducking Teo because you said you want the belts. Cool. You ducked Vergil and then when Teo asked you for a fight at 147, you did not take it. I’m not going to call that no duck.
“You didn’t take that. Now you said you only want to unify, and then you got Stanionis. It’s perfectly understandable, even on our end. It’s perfectly understandable and perfectly good, even if he didn’t fight us for Stanionis. That’s cool, but if you fight Teo and Teo don’t got s*** to offer, that’s bull s***.
“Even if he’s got that fake a** WBA, that’s not the belt that counts. That’s not going to make him unify. That’s not going to get him closer to undisputed. All you need is the four major belts, that’s it, and Teo don’t got one, and Teo ain’t about to have one.”
Norman Jr. and his father need to forget about a unification fight against ‘Boots’ Ennis for now because if Teo is victorious in his title defense against Barboza Jr. on May 2nd, plans are already in place for him to face Teofimo in October.
Ennis is facing WBA champion Eimantas Stanionis next month on April 12th in a unification fight at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Teofimo (21-1, 13 KOs) is defending his WBO light welterweight belt against his mandatory Arnold Barboza Jr. on May 2nd at Times Square in New York City.
Norman Jr. will be defending his first WBO welterweight title against #13 Derrieck Cuevas (27-1-1, 19 KOs) on March 29th at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, in Las Vegas. Brian Jr. has been sitting inactive since his tenth-round knockout win over Giovani Santillan on May 18th last year. Initially, Norman Jr. won the WBO interim 147-lb belt, but it was upgraded last August to the full championship status by the World Boxing Organization.
Last Updated on 03/18/2025
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