By Chris Williams: Terence Crawford pulling out of negotiations for his undisputed welterweight clash with Errol Spence Jr has left the Texas native with two tough choices between Eimantas Stanionis & Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis should he stay at 147.
Ennis (29-0, 27 KOs), the IBF mandatory challenger, has already petitioned the sanctioning body for him to challenge Spence (28-0, 22 KOs). He’s currently waiting to hear back from them to see if he’ll get the fight next.
Boots Ennis, 24, is viewed by some as a bigger, stronger, younger, and more talented version of Crawford. He would be a nightmare for Spence because of what he brings to the table.
Unfortunately for Spence, Ennis is not a big name, so it’s not a fight that will bring in the massive pay-per-view numbers that it otherwise would if Boots had more experience and picked off a few notable scalps.
Boots is ranked #1 IBF and #2 WBO. If he’d have fought Crawford already, he’d likely have his first scalp, but not surprisingly, the aging 35-year-old Nebraska native hasn’t shown interest in fighting him. He would be all wrong for Crawford, who isn’t a spring chicken at his age, and would likely fall apart against the young lion.
The undefeated Stanionis (14-0, 9 KOs), who is the WBA ‘regular’ welterweight champion, is said to have petitioned as well with the World Boxing Association to face Spence.
For Spence, the far, far easier option for him would be to fight Stanionis, and hold onto his IBF, WBA & WBC welterweight titles. However, there’s not much for Spence to gain from fighting the little-known Stanionis unless he plans on staying at 147.
If Spence is going to stay at 147, the only reason for that would be to fight Crawford in 2023, as originally planned. But with Crawford bailing out of the negotiations with Spence with no warning to fight David Avanesyan, the trust may no longer be there for Errol.
If Crawford bailed once in the negotiations with Spence, there’s a chance he could do it again and again, as long as other promoters are willing to offer fights for him.
However, Crawford can’t do that forever, obviously, because the World Boxing Organization will soon be ordering him to defend against his WBO mandatory Vergil Ortiz Jr. That’s hard work for a 35-year-old, especially an inactive one that has been fighting just once a year for the last two years.