Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn believes His Excellency Turki Alalshikh can make the fight between Terence Crawford and Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis a reality.
Hearn says Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) will want a lot of money because it’s a risky fight for him to take on the unbeaten Boots Ennis (31-0, 28 KOs), but that’s where the Saudis come in.
Before Boots Ennis can get that fight, he’s going to need to create demand from the boxing public by becoming the undisputed champion at welterweight first.
Hearn thinks the other champions, Eimantis Stanionis and Mario Barrios will want to fight Boots Ennis because he’s now the biggest money fighter in the 147-lb division.
Crawford’s Price Tag
“The only person that can deliver that fight is His Excellency [Turki Alalshikh],” said promoter Eddie Hearn to Fight Hub TV about a fight between Terence Crawford and Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis.
“Crawford is going to want a huge amount of money for that fight because of the risk. I’ll make sure Boots gets the right price as well. When I took Jaron to meet His Excellency in New York, he made it very clear that was a fight that he was very interested in.”
Crawford likely won’t agree to fight Boots Ennis until after he gets the big-money fight against undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez in December or January.
If Crawford wins that fight, it’s a given there will be a rematch, and he might choose to stay in that weight class rather than come back down to 154, where a fight between him and Boots Ennis can happen.
Ennis’s Path to Superstardom
“I think the good news for Boots, and I get the argument of ‘Why would you sign with them because they don’t have that division?’ At 147, you don’t have superstars like the other champions. So you’ve got Stanionis and Mario Barrios,” said Hearn.
Stanionis and Barrios will agree to fight Boots if the price is right, but otherwise, they probably play it safe holding onto their titles. Both guys looked very average in their recent fights, showing a lack of power and not impressing against the weak opposition they were facing. Boots Ennis would make easy work of these fighters.
“Really, rather than us chasing them, they’re looking at the Boots fight as their cash out fight as you would previously if it were Crawford or Spence or those kind of guys. I don’t see the paydays for Stanionis or Barrios without fighting Boots Ennis,” said Hearn.
“So, I’m hoping after [Cody] Crowley, we can get a unification against one of those two, and then move on to a Terence Crawford fight. I don’t want to undersell my guy [Boots Ennis], but we have to prove; we have to make that fight [against Crawford] massive.
The Saudi Factor
“We got to go out there and fill Wells Fargo, and destroy Crowley, and then you got to get the people saying, ‘Oh my God, Crawford against Ennis is the biggest fight in boxing.’ His Excellency reads everything and he’s a massive boxing fan as well. So, if he starts feeling what all the fans are feeling, we’re going to get it,” said Hearn.
Boots Ennis destroying Cody Crowley won’t create a demand for a fight with Crawford. He’s too low-level to get fans interested. Even beating Barrios and Stanionis won’t do much for Ennis. He might need guys like Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia, Tim Tszyu, Erickson Lubins, and Sebastian Fundora to create a lot of interest in Boots’ career.
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