Matchroom promotions have won the purse bids for IBF welterweight champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis’s title defense against Cody Crowley in July in Philadelphia.
The Financial Smackdown
Mike Coppinger reported that Eddie Hearn won the Ennis vs. Crowley purse bid with a $3.9M winning bid. The split will be 85-15 in Boots’ favor. The losing bidder was TGB Promotions with a bid of $2M.
If IBF mandatory Crowley (22-0, 9 KOs) agrees to take the fight, it’ll take place in Boots Ennis’ hometown of Philadelphia in July.
It would be a mistake for the 31-year-old Crowley not to take the fight because he’s not getting any younger, and he could lose to one of the contenders while waiting for a better deal.
Obviously, the ideal situation for Crowley would be for His Excellency Turki Alalshikh to show interest in this fight and pay a lot of money to put it on. However, it’s not a big enough fight for it to be Alalshikh to show interest.
Alalshikh: The Only Hope?
If Crowley had beaten some of the well-known talented contenders in the 147-lb division, even one, His Excellency might have been interested in putting on his fight with Ennis. That hasn’t happened.
Crowley has fought largely obscure opposition, and because of that, he’s a total unknown with U.S boxing fans. He’s also not a big name on the world stage.
Crowley’s best wins:
Abel Ramos
Josesito Lopez: 39-years-old
Kudratillo Abdukakhorov
Crowley needed wins over Keith Thurman, Errol Spence, Giovani Santillan, Vergil Ortiz, and Eimantas Stanionis to get His Excellency’s attention.
Hearn’s Got Himself a Problem
Promoter Eddie Hearn recently signed Boots Ennis to his Matchroom Boxing stable, and he’s now in the same position PBC was in before struggling to find quality fighters who want to face him.
It’s great that Hearn signed Boots, but it may not be as good as he thinks because he’s likely to be avoided unless Eddie lures the bigger names by offering them massive money.
Alalshikh is said to be interested in putting together a fight between Boots Ennis and Terence Crawford. He’s got the money to make this fight, and he likely won’t care if it fails to bring in the PPV numbers that justify the cost.
But without Alalshikh. it’s unlikely that Hearn will want to overpay opponents to get them to face Boots because they know they’ll lose and their careers will be diminished.