Terence Crawford says there is a possibility he could fight Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis in the future when he moves up to 154. Crawford, who holds the WBA junior middleweight title, points out that ‘Boots’ has ‘turned down’ a fight with Vergil Ortiz. Jr. to move to 154.
Bud’s condition
Crawford’s comment about Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) choosing NOT to face Vergil Jr. for his interim WBC 154-lb title on the Riyadh Season card on February 22 suggests he has doubts about whether he will ever face him.
It is not a good sign that Boots did not accept the offer of His Excellency Turki Alalshikh to fight on his card against Ortiz Jr. Taking that fight would have given Ennis’ career a huge boost, but he declined. This indicates that he lack of self-confidencewhich is understandable after her poor performance in her rematch against Karen Chukhadzhian on November 9.
Because there is no possibility of a fight between the two, Ennis would need to be more of a risk-taker moving up in weight to take the tougher fights against guys like Ortiz Jr. and the other straps. It seems that “Boots” is content to stay safe at 147, beating less talented opposition, and being a big fish in a small pond. He earns good money for low-risk fights that his promoter, Eddie Hearn, puts him at welterweight. All that potentially changes if Ennis moves to 154; therefore, he chose to stay “safe” at 147, using division as a foxhole to hide in.
It is understandable why Ennis, promoted by Matchroom, did not want to go up to 154 to fight killers like Vergil Ortiz Jr. because of the easy money he earns now at welterweight, feasting on Hors D’oeuvres, like Karen Chukhadzhian and David Avanesyan. it is preferable to jumping into the turbulent waters of the ocean at 154 to face the talented fighters who could beat him repeatedly.
“He turned down a fight”
“I think Boots and Stanionis are the two top guys in the division. We’re in two different weight classes,” Terence Crawford told Boxing Social, when asked if he could fight Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis.
“As you can see, he just turned down a fight with Vergil (Ortiz Jr.) to move up to 154 because he’s at 147. I think Boots is going to do tremendous things in the sport of boxing. I think he’s going to be able to clean up the 147 lb division, and when it moves, who knows?
“I don’t know what the negotiations are. I don’t want to say that no one is ducking someone when I don’t know the situation at hand. But from the glances at him, everyone comes to him, saying: “He’s gone astray”. I don’t know” , Crawford said when asked if he believed “Boots” Ennis ran away from interim WBC junior middleweight champion Vergil Ortiz Jr. when he asked him if he wanted to fight him in the February 22 card in Riyadh.
