Promoter Eddie Hearn says Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis beats Terence Crawford based on how he looked in his ‘win’ over WBA junior middleweight champion Israil Madrimov last Saturday night.
Ennis failed to take advantage of being at ringside for Crawford-Madrimov because he could have called out Crawford. According to Hearn, Ennis wouldn’t call out Crawford because it would be a waste of time.
Even if he’d wanted to, Ennis likely would not have been allowed to enter the ring after the fight to call out Crawford. Security was tight, guarding the ring like hawks and ready to pounce on anyone who attempted to enter after the fight.
The last thing Boots needed was to be humiliated and taken away in handcuffs. If this were Canelo Alvarez, who wanted to enter the ring to call out Crawford, that would be a different story. The security staff would have given him the red carpet treatment, treating him like royalty.
Crawford’s Hesitation to Face Ennis
Hearn feels Crawford will stay away from Boots Ennis because he will lose to him. Also, it’s not a big enough fight to interest Crawford, who is money-focused, and he’s not going to make the kind of dough that would tempt him to face the unbeaten Boots (32-0, 29 KOs).
Terence didn’t look like his old self against Madrimov (10-1-1, 7 KOs). He appeared slower and weaker, not the fighter fans raved about last year against the wasted, car crash-wrecked shell of Errol Spence.
Against that version of Spence, anyone would have looked like gold against him last year. Fans were fooled, thinking Crawford was this unbeatable guy without factoring in how washed Spence is.
Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) has lost something from his game, and Hearn feels he’ll stay away from the young phenom to continue pushing for a fight against Canelo Alvarez.
“He’s not going to call out. That’s not his style. It’s the big cringe,” said Hearn when asked why Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis didn’t call out Crawford after the fight. “Terence Crawford isn’t going to fight Boots. Boots beats Terence Crawford on that performance.
It’s possible that Crawford was never as good as people thought, and Madrimov, who Hearn feels was the best opponent of his 16-year pro career, exposed him for being a partial hype job. If you look at Crawford’s resume, there’s not much there.
So, it might not have been Crawford’s advancing age and physical decline that caused his lackluster performance against Madrimov, but rather, he’d never been what people had thought.
Either way, Crawford doesn’t look near good enough to beat Ennis, and he seems to know that because he’s not taking a chance to fight him.
“Crawford isn’t going to fight Jaron Ennis unless someone comes up with a load of money, and the fight is not big enough yet,” said Hearn. “Jaron Ennis isn’t going to cringe showing up at press conferences, shouting and screaming. He’s the best welterweight in the world. He wants to win all the belts.”
His Excellency wants Crawford to fight Ennis, but it’s unclear what kind of money Terence would want him to take that risk at his age. Crawford-Boots would be a bigger fight than the Madrimov match, but it’s probably not going to happen unless it’s the only option for the Nebraska native.
As long as Crawford thinks there’s a possibility of getting the Canelo fight, he won’t agree to fight Ennis. Crawford agreed to fight Madrimov because he thought it was a sure-thing win for him, but he didn’t factor in that this guy was levels above the 40 guys he’d built his resume on.
“Bud is up at 154. He [Ennis] doesn’t want to vacate his belt. He wants to win the welterweight championship undisputed. Unless they come up with mad money, which doesn’t exist for that fight [Crawford-Ennis] yet,” said Hearn.
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