Trainer Stephen Edwards doubts Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis will get credit if he beats a 39 or 40-year-old Terence Crawford in a year or two after he moves up to 160.
Building Boots, Losing Crawford
Ennis (35-0, 31 KOs) is still fighting at junior middleweight, and he’s not talking about wanting to move up to 160 or 168 right now. He’d have to do that soon for him to catch Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs) before he retires.
“It’s so far away. ‘Boots’ has got to clear four undefeated fighters. “Bakhram,” said Stephen Edwards to MillCity Boxing, discussing the unlikely chance of a fight between Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis and Terence Crawford happening.
Stephen is right. Ennis is still fighting at 154, and his promoter, Eddie Hearn, wants him to clear out the division before moving up to 160 to put the heat on Crawford. It could take two to three years for Ennis to round up all four titles at junior middleweight. By then, Crawford won’t be around, and if he is, he’s not going to have much left.
The Built-In Age Excuse
“I just think it’s too far away unless Turki and Terence came up with a master plan to get the fight [with ‘Boots’]. I just don’t know how we could do that. If we do it, Crawford is 38 now. He’d be 39 or 40. I don’t know if ‘Boots’ would get credit for it,” said Edwards.
Ennis won’t get credit for beating Crawford if he’s 39 or 40. There will be the age excuse to invalidate ‘Boots’ win. If Crawford takes on any of the sharks at 168, like Osleys Iglesias or Christian Mbilli, he’s likely to lose. He’d be worthless to Ennis after that and considered broken down, which he pretty much is. He didn’t look good against Canelo, and certainly not against Israil Madrimov.
Turki’s Millions Could Save It
It would have to be Turki who came up with the big offer to lure Crawford to fight Ennis. I think Crawford would want $50 million to $150 million to fight ‘Boots,’ even though he’s nowhere near as popular as Canelo Alvarez.
Terence just saw Canelo get a $150M, and he might feel that he’s taken his place as the Face of Boxing with his win. He’d get it confused in his head, thinking a win turned him into the new Canelo in terms of money. If it were like that, Dmitry Bivol would be the big money guy in the sport because he beat Canelo in a far more impressive style than Crawford in 2022.
It’s a fight that wouldn’t generate more viewers than the 41 million global viewers for Canelo vs. Crawford on Netflix. Ennis isn’t a big enough name yet. So, it would come down to whether Turki would want the fight enough for him to overpay Crawford.
Based on his last two performances against Canelo and Israil Madrimov, he’s not worth $50-100 million. Those were efforts from fighters making fifty thousand. For Crawford to earn that kind of money, Turki would have to like him a lot, and it would take a bigger fight.
Since he’s not interested in fighting him, he is more focused on moving down to 160 to capture a title for legacy purposes.
Crawford Chasing Adames
Bud just wants to win a sixth-division world title and get a nice paycheck, fighting WBC middleweight champion Carlos Adames. He’s the one Crawford has history with from their sparring sessions, in which he reportedly got the better of Adames.
“I don’t know if it’s possible because ‘Boots’ would have to leave 54, and there’s a bunch of work at 154. Crawford would have to come out of 168,” said Edwards.
Time Not on Boots’ Side
Ennis can’t fight Crawford unless he tells his promoter, Eddie Hearn, that he’s not interested in staying at 154 to spend the next year or two building up his resume. That’s a waste of time. He’s still going to be two divisions apart from Crawford, and there would be even more of an age excuse.
Chris Williams has covered boxing since 2010, bringing fans reliable analysis and insight from ringside to headline events.
