By Chris Williams: Shakur Stevenson is 100% against Terence Crawford tangling with the young phenom Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis before he soon leaves the sport.
Stevenson seems fully aware of the risk involved in the 36-year-old Crawford mixing up with Boots Ennis, who is very dangerous. It would be bad seeing his good friend, Crawford, get beaten up by Boots Ennis and sent into retirement off a defeat.
He wants Terence to fight Canelo Alvarez & Jermell Charlo and then get out of the game with those money fights. However, those fights might not happen, especially the Canelo fight.
That’s more of a pipe dream that a person has when sitting back, lost in reverie, wishing & hoping they’ll win the lottery. Canelo already said in his best English that he’s not interested in fighting Crawford, and that means he needs to move along & try and campaign for a fight against somebody else.
Crawford isn’t going to make better money at 154 fighting the likes of Brian Mendoza, Jesus Ramos, or Tim Tszyu when he would against Boots Ennis.
Those are all grueling fights for Crawford because those guys won’t be weight-drained from losing 50 lbs in training camp or coming back from a 100 mph car crash. Crawford is better off fighting Boots than messing with the heavy hitters Tszyu, Ramos, or Mendoza at 154.
Shakur admires the talent of the young unbeaten Boots Ennis (31-0, 28 KOs), but he doesn’t want Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) to mess with him, and it’s understandable why.
“Boots hasn’t really got the opportunity to prove himself yet,” said Shakur Stevenson to the media when asked if Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis will give Terence Crawford his toughest fight. I think right now, Boots should fight Keith Thurman, but he’ll beat the s** t out of Keith Thurman. Boots is a bad mother f***r,” said Shakur when told that Thurman doesn’t want to fight Boots Ennis.
“When it comes down to it, Bud is at the end of his career. He should be focused on the big fights, the fights that are going to bring him the most money as far as Canelo and Charlo,” said Shakur.
It sounds good, Crawford getting Canelo and/or Jermell, but what if he doesn’t get either one of those guys? What then? Does he sit & wait for two or three years, sitting inactive, or does he return to work and take on Boots Ennis?
I hate to say it, but Crawford is getting old, the hair is receding, and he lucked out, catching Errol Spence at his all-time worst, with him drained and looking like he’s not the fighter he had been before his car crash in 2019.
“Those are the fighters who fought each other and fought big fights that created the opportunities and the accolades to go against Bud,” said Shakur.
“That’s Bob’s opinion,” said Shakur when told that Bob Arum thinks Canelo Alvarez destroys Crawford. “I think Bud outboxes the s**t out of Canelo.
“No, it won’t be different, but you got to give Errol Spence his flowers because he’s a warrior, he don’t duck nobody. He’s not nobody that lost and don’t want to fight again. You can clearly see he wants to get back in the ring with Bud after that fight. You got to give him his flowers and his respect,” said Shakur about Spence.
