By Allan Fox: Fans have made it clear that the #1 fight they want for Terence Crawford besides Canelo Alvarez, who is NOT interested in an aging welterweight, is Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis.
Many believe Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) is flat-out scared of fighting the young 26-year-old phenom ‘Boots’ Ennis. He’s kryptonite for his fighting style and would wreck his future money-making ability.
Crawford will have to start vacating his 147-lb titles because he can’t just sit on them to use them to increase his value for negotiating with non-welterweights.
The IBF needs to strip Crawford
His IBF mandatory defense against Boots is due, and the sanctioning body will soon put the 36-year-old Crawford’s feet to the fire to force him to decide whether he’s willing to put his hide at risk or play it safe by vacating.
Crawford can’t keep his IBF belt to use it to get a better deal in fights against other fighters.
It’s pretty evident that Crawford sees Boots as a serious threat, and he realizes what could happen if he tangled with him. All that fame that Crawford has received for his recent big win over Errol Spence Jr. would be out the window, and the boxing public would admit that he wasn’t what they thought he was.
Crawford’s options after Spence rematch:
- Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis
- Jermell Charlo
- Tim Tszyu
- Giovani Santillan
Obviously, there’s more interest from fans in a fight between Crawford & Boots Ennis than ones against Jermell, Santillan, and Tszyu.
If Jermell hadn’t lost to Canelo, he would be a bigger fight for Terence, but even if he hadn’t fought him, he’d likely have been beaten by Tszyu. The interest in a fight between Crawford & Jermell is gone now, and it’s not returning.
The wisened boxing fans note that the way Spence looked on the night Crawford fought him, he would have lost to almost anybody in the 147 & 140-lb division.
You could have put a light welterweight like Gary Antuanne Russell, Teofimo Lopez & Subriel Matias in the ring with Spence last July, and they would have beaten him just as badly as Crawford did.
The reality is Crawford doesn’t have any options for a more appealing fight than ‘Boots’ Ennis (31-0, 28 KOs) because the guy that he wanted, Jermell Charlo, was humiliated by Canelo, and his popularity is now at such a low level that it would be worthless for Terence to fight him other than to get a sure-thing win.
Greed hurting the sport
Crawford recently said that he only wants the bigger money fights from this point forward, which, if that’s the case, he won’t be defending his world titles. That’s another reason he should be stripped of his welterweight titles.
World champions that are only out for money are bad for the sport because they’ll ignore contenders and focus on guys that will enrich themselves while preventing the sport from growing.
If contenders are avoided because they’re not well-known enough for greedy champions only concerned with money, it’s not good for boxing. Crawford’s decision to place money as his main focus now means he shouldn’t be holding onto any world titles because he’s not going to defend them against his mandatory challengers because they’re not well-known enough. As such, he should vacate or be stripped.
Boxing needs a commission to force champions to defend against mandatory challengers and keep them on a short leash to ensure that they don’t ignore them while focusing on moving among divisions for paydays.
Imagine an NFL team being allowed to swerve teams on their schedule to face whoever they pleased so that they could make a little more coin. It would be pure anarchy if the commissioner of the league allowed that.