By Chris Williams: Trainer Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis reveals that his son, unbeaten welterweight contender Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, was planning to fight in the co-feature on Showtime’s PPV cars on November 25th, but his would-be opponent Cody Crowley turned the fight down.
Not having ‘Boots’ Ennis in the co-feature slot on the David Benavidez vs. Demetrius Andrade card in Las Vegas is a missed opportunity, as he’s got superstar talent and is poised to take the reigns as the #1 fighter in the welterweight division.
The old dogs in the 147-lb division want nothing to do with Boots Ennis, but he’s still expected to relieve the current IBF champion Terence Crawford of his belt in 2024, even if he wants nothing to do with the young phenom.
Instead of Ennis fighting in the chief support, inactive WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo will be fighting Jose Benavidez Jr, which is a decent little fight but not as interesting as Boots taking on Crowley.
Jermall has been too inactive over the last 2.5 years, and his twin brother, Jermell’s recent awful performance against Canelo Alvarez, makes him guilty by association in the eyes of some boxing fans.
It’s believed by some that Crowley’s management at PBC didn’t want him to be sacrificed by getting fed to ‘Boots’ Ennis, a Showtime fighter, who isn’t signed with Al Haymon.
Boots Ennis isn’t going to sign with PBC just to get a fight against Crowley, especially with their future now murky with Showtime getting out of the boxing business after 2023.
Although the 30-year-old Crowley is ranked #2 WBO & #3 IBF at welterweight, he’s not in the same galaxy talent-wise as Boots Ennis, and would be slaughtered, likely worse than Jaron’s last opponent Roiman Villa.
That wouldn’t be an in-house PBC fight if Crowley were given the green light to face Ennis. Crowley would be more useful to PBC as a B-side opponent for WBA secondary welterweight champion Eimantis Sanionis or a tune-up fight for inactive former unified 147-lb champion Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman, who hasn’t fought in almost two years.
Bozy says that he heard that Crowley (22-0, 9 KOs) wanted more money to take the fight with ‘Boots’ Ennis (31-0, 28 KOs), which makes sense because it was a high-risk fight that he had little chance of actually winning or even being competitive.
“What happened with that is once you get close to signing a contract or pushing a fight like you’re pushing a fight towards, them guys turn around and say they don’t want to take the fight then,” said trainer Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis to YSM Sports Media on why Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis isn’t fighting Candian boxer Cody Crowley on the November 25th Showtime PPV card.
“What I mean by that is once you get close to the time to fight, everybody changes their mind, and that’s what happened. We were supposed to fight Cowdy Crowley because he was next in line after [Roiman] Villa because Villa was next in line with the IBF.
There are a lot more interesting fights in the welterweight division than Crowley for Boots Ennis, but none of the top guys want to fight him. Eimantis Stanionis & Keith Thurman are both with PBC, so they won’t fight a non-PBC fighter like Boots Ennis and be a sacrificial lamb to be slaughtered by him.
Terence Crawford is on his way out the door, as well as Errol Spence, so they’re not going to want to fight Boots Ennis and get beaten before they cash out.
“Cowdy was #2 [WBO] & #3 [IBF], so he’s moved up. He’s the #1 guy now, so that’s who we wanted, and he said he would fight us,” said Bozy. “But then, when it got closer and closer to fighting, he said he was not ready now.
“No, but I did hear that too,” said Bozy when asked if it was a situation where Cowdy wanted more money to fight Boots Ennis on November 25th. “I heard that from somebody that is close to somebody that is training him that was saying something about more money too.”
It’s unknown how much money Cowley wanted for a fight with Boots Ennis, but it’s understandable why he didn’t get what he wanted. Crowley isn’t a big name in the U.S., and it wouldn’t have made sense for Showtime to have paid him a ton of money to be the opponent for Ennis, in a showcase-level fight.
The only things Crowley had going for him were his unbeaten record and his high ranking with the IBF & WBO. Casual boxing fans don’t know about that kind of stuff and wouldn’t have been impressed.
“He [Crowley] didn’t explain that to the head of Showtime. He didn’t say nothing about the money. Somebody just must have told him something about Boots,” said Bozy.
“He doesn’t want to fight him right now. You should wait for something like that. I don’t know what took place, but he just turned it down,” said Bozy about Crowley not wanting Boots.
