Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis returns to his hometown in Philadelphia to make his first defense of his IBF welterweight title against Cody Crowley on July 13th in a Matchroom-promoted event at the Wells Fargo Center.
Ennis (31-0, 28 KOs) has to get his mandatory requirement out of the way before he can move on to fight the more interesting fights against the champions at 147. Boots wanted a fight with Terence Crawford, but the feeling was not mutual.
His promoter, Eddie Hearn, has mapped out a plan for Boots to capture all four belts at 147 before he moves up to 154 to go after the money fights. Holding Boots back is not a good idea for his career, as he could miss out on a lot of interesting fights and paydays at 154.
Underwhelming Opponent for Ennis
Crowley (22-0, 9 KOs) is unbeaten but he’s feeding off of minnows for his entire 10-year professional career, which is why he’s still unknown. He hasn’t fought anyone good and that’s bad for fans because they’re probably not going to get much of a fight on July 13th.
Crowley has been inactive for over a year, and it’s unclear whether he’ll be in top form coming off a long layoff going up against a talent like Boots.
Nothing on the 31-year-old Crowley’s resume suggests that he’s going to be competitive with Boots Ennis. Let’s hope that he doesn’t fold after two rounds like some of Ennis’ opponents have done.
Crowley earned the mandatory spot with the IBF by defeating Abel Ramos by a narrow 12-round majority decision 13 months ago.
Ramos used to be a good fighter years ago, but by the time Crowley fought him, he’d lost two out of his last three fights and was not the same fighter who had given Yordenis Ugas problems in 2020 in a losing effort.
Ennis will be coming off a year-long layoff when he faces Crowley. In Boots’ last fight, he stopped Roiman Villa in the tenth round in a grueling contest in July 2023. It was a good fight, but a tough one for Boots, as the powerful Villa hit him a lot with heavy shots.
Hearn’s Plan for Undisputed Champion
Hearn thinks it’s a keen idea for Boots to stay at 147 and slowly but surely capture all the belts to become undisputed champion by beating Mario Barrios, Eimantas Stanionis, and whoever holds the WBO belt.
If Hearn wants to fast-track Boots Ennis, he can forget about fighting the no-name champions at 147 and focus on advancing him quickly to stardom by moving him up to 154 to take on these fighters:
Terence Crawford
Errol Spence
Sebastian Fundora
Tim Tszyu
Xander Zayas
Erickson Lubin