Eddie Hearn is looking at around 14,000 at the Wells Fargo for Ennis-Avanesyan in Philly

PHILADELPHIA, PA — Philadelphia is supposed to be “a great fight town.” It’s not. Philadelphia is supposed to be “a great sports town.” It’s not.

It does not mean Philadelphia does not produce great fighters.

It still does.

Jaron “Boots” Ennis currently is one of them. Eddie Hearn, Matchroom Promotions chairman, made a promise to Ennis when he came swooping in seemingly from nowhere to pull off the surprise promotional signing of the IBF welterweight titlist in April that his first title defense would be in his hometown of Philadelphia, an overrated sports town with the exception of the fervent fanbase that follows the NFL Eagles.

Hearn promised Ennis that he would build his popularity among sports fans in the city—and it appears he has done that, too.

In an exclusive discussion with The Ring, Hearn said there could be 14,000 for Ennis’ first IBF 147-pound title defense, which comes against tough David Avanesyan (30-4-1, 18 knockouts) this Saturday night on the DAZN at the 21,000-seat Wells Fargo Center, the home of the NBA’s 76ers and NHL’s Flyers.

The 14,000 figure would be the highest attendance at a Philly indoor fight since all-time great Marvin Hagler beat Bennie Briscoe by 10-round decision on August 24, 1978 at the defunct Philadelphia Spectrum (14,930), and would fall close to 2,000 short of Philadelphia’s all-time indoor boxing attendance record, set by the 16,019 that witnessed one of boxing’s greatest robberies, when WBC junior lightweight titlist Alfredo Escalera defended the belt in what was clearly a Tyrone Everett victory.

Ennis (31-0, 28 KOs) will highlight an eight-bout card that will also feature Skye Nicolson’s WBC women’s 10-round featherweight title defense against Dyana Vargas and filled with a bunch of promising prospects.

It is a given Boots should win—and win handily.

What has been the biggest curiosity is how the fight draws.

Close to a century ago, Philadelphia was once a lively, and historic fight hub. On Sept. 23, 1926, Gene Tunney defeated Jack Dempsey in the pouring rain on a Thursday night before a crowd of 120,557 at Sesquicentennial Stadium, later renamed Municipal Stadium and eventually JFK Stadium, where the Army-Navy game was held. Twenty-six years later to the day, Rocky Marciano knocked out Jersey Joe Walcott to win the heavyweight title on Sept. 23, 1952, before 40,379 fans at Municipal Stadium.

Spearheaded by Hall of Fame promoter J Russell Peltz, Philadelphia made a comeback as a fight port from the late-1960s through to the early-1980s. Peltz helped draw Hall of Famers Hagler, Tommy Hearns, Matthew Saad Muhammad, Jeff Chandler and Roberto Duran to the Spectrum, attracting healthy five-figure crowds.

Today, Philadelphia’s Stephen Fulton, the former WBO and WBC junior featherweight titlist, gets mobbed in a Tokyo, Japan, airport and is not recognized walking down a North Philly street.

This time last year, Fulton held the WBO and WBC junior featherweight titles, just before flying to Japan and losing the belts to eventual 2023 Fighter of the Year Naoya Inoue.

“I’m the only world champion in Philadelphia (the Philadelphia Phillies lost the 2022 World Series, and the Eagles lost the 2022 Super Bowl),” Fulton told The Ring at the time. “It’s like no one knows that. It’s why I said I would never fight in Philadelphia. I get more love across the country and halfway around the world than I do in my own city. They can keep the love. I don’t care for it at this point.”

On March 29, 2003, middleweight all-time great Bernard Hopkins made his 16th title defense against French marathoner Morrade “Pepe Le Pew” Hakkar before a handful at the Spectrum in a WBC mandatory. The event, because it was not a fight, was widely panned. It seriously impugned the Philadelphia boxing fanbase, considering that Hopkins could not draw from his hometown regardless of who he fought.

Hearn, a master salesman, is looking to change that with Boots. For one, Ennis being 147 is a considerable plus. U.S. lighter-weight fighters seemingly have a tougher time drawing attention in their home cities. Secondly, and more importantly, Hearn’s struggle may not come so much in selling Ennis, 27, a very likable, extremely talented fighter, as his task will be in selling boxing to a pessimistic city that has tuned boxing out decades ago as a crossover sport.

“We are hoping to get around 14,000 and size-wise, this is a big event,” Hearn said. “This is the biggest fight since the Hagler-Briscoe fight, which was 46 years ago. The key here is that Philadelphia is a very vibrant sports city, and a vibrant boxing city. I believe there is an element that Boots is so good, and people recognize his potential to be a top-five, top-three pound-for-pound fighter in the world. People understand that and are buying into that.

“One of the most exciting things about this project is the potential future. If we can draw 14,000 for David Avanesyan, who is a good, competitive fighter, we would sell out for a bigger fight. We are looking to build on this and build on how good Boots is. I would like to see one more major fight, a unification title fight against either Eimantas Stanionis (15-0, 9 KOs) or (WBC titlist) Mario Barrios (29-2, 18 KOs) sometime later this year. We know the potential of the crowd. We are looking at a really good gate, of over $1 million. This is the re-emergence of championship boxing in the city, and Boots is a dominant fighter who could be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.”

Avanesyan is a better fight than the original opponent Cody Crowley, the IBF mandatory who was ruled out when he failed a pre-fight eye exam. Avanesyan will come to fight.

Hearn has priced the tickets very reasonably, with the bottom tier almost sold out, with $1,000 ringside seats, and the $30 upper tier seats still available.

“We have been going very well the last 48 hours, and we want to come back to Philly,” Hearn said. “We hear stuff about inflated tickets. I found it very strange the comments that came from Russell Peltz about inflated ticket sales, and I don’t understand why he would not want to be behind one of the most successful promotions the city has ever had. There are absolutely no concessions on the numbers where we are at the moment, no comps, nothing. Depending on the size of a show, comps vary.

“Obviously, if it is a smaller crowd, and you have space in an arena, you use comps to promote the show. We don’t use comps to fill seats. When a show is selling really well, as this has, you take care of your sponsors with comps. We have had pure sales. I don’t know why anyone like Russell, who is from Philadelphia, would want to diminish what this is—the biggest fight this decade. Russell is a legend. He is a legend from this area, who should be looking at Saturday as a proud man, looking back at those glory days and have a chance here to re-emerge from the ashes of where big-time boxing used to be in Philadelphia.

“Boots and his father are great boxing ambassadors. Boots is a good person, and an outstanding role model for the city, and for me, it’s what makes him a good sell. He is a great fighter, and a great individual who embraces the sport.

“You can’t beat that.”

Hopefully, Philadelphia gets it.

Joseph Santoliquito is a Hall of Fame, award-winning sportswriter who has been working for Ring Magazine/RingTV.com since October 1997 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.
Follow @JSantoliquito

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