Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis denies that he was offered two fights against Terence Crawford as a welterweight in the past. Boots (31-0, 28 KOs) says he would take it if offered a match with Crawford.
Boots Ennis Responds to Crawford
Ennis states that when he was offered a fight against Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs), he said, ‘Yeah,’ and that was the last he heard from him. Instead of Crawford fighting him, the Nebraska native chose to face David Avanesyan in December 2022 in his hometown of Omaha.
Boots doesn’t know what to make of it, but it looked pretty clear. Crawford didn’t want any part of fighting the young lion, who is terrorizing the 147-lb division and looks unbeatable.
Crawford’s Focus on Canelo Alvarez
At Crawford’s age, facing Boots would be a bad career move, especially when he’s being groomed for a mega-payday against Canelo Alvarez at the top of the year in 2025.
Crawford told Forbes this week that he’s interested in fighting a rematch with Errol Spence Jr. if he defeats WBC/WBO 154-lb champion Sebastian Fundora later this year. Boots Ennis is not in Crawford’s orbit or solar system, and it doesn’t look like he’ll be.
“What two opportunities did I have to fight him? He chose Avanesyan; he could’ve picked me,” said Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis to the Cigar Talk YouTube channel, rebutting what Terence Crawford had said about him turning down a fight against him.
Ennis’s Willingness to Fight
“That’s who he [Crawford] chose, so you can’t blame me. I get a call; I’m going to take it. Why would I not take it?” Boots continued. “Then, when he did ask, do we want to fight, we said ‘Yeah’ and we never heard nothing else back about it. That’s the fight that everybody wants to see; I want to do it.”
Obviously, if Crawford wanted a fight against Boots Ennis, he wouldn’t have left the welterweight division in a hurry after defeating Spence last July.
Crawford would have made it a point to defend his four belts against Boots Ennis before moving up to junior middleweight, but he didn’t, and you can understand why.
It’s a hard fight for Crawford, and as Tim Bradley points out, there’s “worry” there. Crawford would be a fool not to be worried. He’s got that giant Canelo payday in front of him, and all he’s got to do is win his fight against Israil Madrimov, the WBA junior middleweight champion, on August 3rd to punch his ticket for the fight against Alvarez next year.
Ennis’s Focus on Avanesyan
Boots Ennis is defending his IBF welterweight title this Saturday, July 13th, against Avanesyan (30-4-1, 18 KOs), live on DAZN from the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
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