Trainer Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis says Terence Crawford wasn’t going to fight his IBF mandatory Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis after capturing that title from Errol Spence Jr. last July, so the sanctioning body did the right thing by stripping him.
Bozy points out that Boots Ennis (31-0, 28 KOs) had been waiting for two years for a title shot for the IBF belt when Spence held the title.
So when Crawford fought him, he inherited his overdue mandatory commitment, needing to defend the belt in his next fight. There wasn’t any choice for Crawford but to give up the IBF title due to his rematch clause with Spence.
Boots waited two years
That said, Crawford could have arranged a step-aside deal for Boots Ennis, but why would he? Crawford has already made it clear that he’s moving up to 154 anyway, so the IBF belt, along with his WBA, WBC & WBO titles will be vacated anyway.
The only thing Crawford lost out on was holding onto his undisputed championship longer for status purposes. Bozy Ennis says he understood why the 36-year-old unbeaten Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) didn’t fight Boots. He was a “High risk, low reward” clash for him, and he wanted to get bigger money fights before he retired.
“It doesn’t make us feel good because we wanted to fight for the title. We didn’t want to be handed the title. But we didn’t want the title to get away from us because we’d been trying to fight for the title for two years,” said Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis to Fight Hub TV, giving his thoughts on the IBF elevating his son, Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis to welterweight champion after stripped Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford of his belt.
As Bozy points out, they would have rather fought for the IBF title, but what could they do? Crawford wasn’t going to fight Boots Ennis, as he had the rematch with Spence.
Even after the second fight, Crawford is expected to vacate all his titles, so Boots would have been waiting for nothing. At the end of all that, he would have been elevated by the IBF without being able to fight the Crawford vs. Spence winner.
Crawford wasn’t going to fight Ennis
“When Spence had it [IBF title], he didn’t take the fight Boots. So him and Crawford fought. We figured Crawford was going to fight us because he made a statement to Spence that he always defends against his mandatories,” said Bozy.
Obviously, if the shoe was on the other foot and Crawford was the one sitting for two years, waiting for a title shot against the IBF champion, he would not have been pleased to be made to wait for a rematch between a champ, who wasn’t going to defend against him after that fight. Crawford would have been sitting and gaining nothing from that lost time.
“So, Boots was his mandatory, but we never did get a chance to fight him. It would have been much better if we had fought for it. No, not really, because we were after the belt for two years. They should have had more sympathy for us than for him because we’d been chasing the belt for two years,” said Bozy when asked if it was premature that Crawford was stripped by the International Boxing Federation just two months after he captured the title from Spence last July.
If Crawford were younger, he wouldn’t have been in a hurry to pursue other fights, and he’d have made it clear that he would stick around and defend against Boots after his rematch with Spence, but that wasn’t the situation. Crawford is old and on his way out of the sport in a couple of fights.
“I can see where Crawford is coming from. He doesn’t want to take the fight with Boots. It’s high risk, low reward. I think he’s trying to get some bigger fights and then go off and be a trainer or enjoy his life,” said Bozy Ennis.
