Following the latest win from Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis over the weekend, Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn talks to the media about what a fight between Boots and Vergil Ortiz could look like, why Boots has to be better, and how there’s a good chance we’ll see a big fight card in early 2025 between Matchroom and Golden Boy fighters.
Hearn on what he expects a Boots vs Vergil Ortiz fight to look like considering Boots’ most recent performance
“Listen, I think it’s a great fight and Boots knows he’s got to be better than tonight against a fighter like Vergil Ortiz. But the training would be different, the mind set would be different, the challenge would be different, and that’s where you’re going to see the best of a great fighter like Boots.
“So I really respect Vergil Ortiz, I love Robert Garcia, Oscar De La Hoya’s a plonker and we got to make sure and I’ll be saying to Boots ‘we can’t afford to lose that fight.’ I can’t lose to that fucker. No way. If you don’t win that fight I’ll never talk to you again.”
On calling De La Hoya a plonker
“Jokes aside, Oscar De La Hoya’s like one of the greatest fighters of all time so I give him respect, and I don’t mind this Clap Back Thursday stuff, it’s a bit weird but he’s character and he gets people talking, and him against me — not in the ring — but in a matchup with our fighters, there’s so many great fights to be make. Shakur against Zepeda is pretty much done. Boots against Ortiz. [Zurdo] Ramirez against Opetaia. The other Ramirez against Catterall. Pacheco against — he said Munguia but Munguia left him so we can’t do that but there’s loads of other fights out there to be made.
“I just want to make the best fights and the best cards so jokes aside with Oscar, we can make a tremendous night for the sport and that’s what His Excellency wants to do and I do believe you’ll see these fights come together on Feb. 22.”