Jaron “Boots” Ennis is in another legal dispute as the Philly fighter finds himself in a lawsuit suing his promoter for lack of fights.
Ennis fought this past July and earned a 10th round KO, but he has not been able to get a sufficient number of fights.
Boots filed his Promotional Agreement with the Court which is dated January 19, 2019. The contract includes a 4 year outline of fights he would be offered.
Promotional Agreement by MMA Payout
In year one of the Promotional Agreement, Ennis would be offered 4 fights. In year two he would be offered 4 fights and in years 3 and 4 he would be offered 3.
Over the course of the Agreement, Ennis was guaranteed at least 14 offers to fight. He claims he only received nine. As a result, Ennis is filing the lawsuit to seek a declaratory judgment that the Agreement is over and that he is allowed to work with other promoters. He is also suing for breach of contract for not receiving the 14 offers.
As the Agreement was for four years, Ennis is attempting to get a Court order stating that the term is over. It would seem that NOW Boxing is seeking to extend the term past the January 19, 2023 expiration date.
Notably, Cameron Dunkin executed the Promotional Agreement. However, Dunkin passed away leaving the management business to his wife. Ennis notes in the lawsuit that he is not sure if she is a licensed promoter.
Ennis was involved in a lawsuit involving Dunkin in 2015 which resulted in a settlement prior to trial. In that case, he claimed that Dunkin was acting as both promoter and manager (through proxy). We now see another dispute between Ennis and Dunkin’s promotion.
Ennis argues that he was given 3 fights in his first year of the contract, 2 his second and third and 1 in his fourth.
Whether or not there were extenuating circumstances about the lack of fight offers is a fact we will learn when NOW Boxing answers the lawsuit.
But, we’ve seen lawsuits with upset boxers for the lack of activity (e.g., Canelo Alvarez and Miljas Mladen). This could be another. Obviously, professional boxers rely on fight purses to make a living and when they do not get offers (or good ones with solid competitors to improve their ranking), it is frustrating and freezes them from making money.
As with most of these lawsuits, here, Ennis claims he is precluded from seeking out another fight unless NOW is involved as his promoter. This would seem to be contrary to the job of the promoter which is to find fights for fighters.
MPO will continue to follow.
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