Trainer Stephen Edwards doubts Jaron “Boots” Ennis will get any recognition if he beats 39-40-year-old Terence Crawford a year or two after he moves up to 160 pounds.
Building shoes, losing Crawford
Ennis (35-0, 31 KO) still fights at junior middleweight and that’s not to say he wants to move up to 160 or 168 right now. He’ll have to do that soon to catch up to Crawford (42-0, 31 KO) before he retires.
“It’s so far. ‘Boots’ has to beat four undefeated fighters. “Bakhram,” said Stephen Edwards MillCity Boxingdiscussing the unlikely chance of a fight between Jaron “Boots” Ennis and Terence Crawford.
Stefan is right. Ennis still fights at 154, and his promoter, Eddie Hearn, wants him to pristine up the division before moving up to 160 pounds to test Crawford. It could take Ennis two to three years to win all four junior middleweight titles. By then, Crawford will be gone, or if he is, there won’t be much left.
Built-in age excuse
“I just think it’s too far unless Turki and Terence come up with a brilliant plan to get a fight [with ‘Boots’]. I just don’t know how we could do it. If we succeed, Crawford will now be 38 years elderly. He would have been 39 or 40 years elderly. “I don’t know if ‘Boots’ would get any credit for that,” Edwards said.
Ennis won’t be credited with beating Crawford if he’s 39 or 40 years elderly. The excuse for age will be to nullify ‘Boots’ victory. If Crawford faces one of the 168-pound sharks like Osleys Iglesias or Christian Mbilli, he will likely lose. He would be worthless to Ennis after this and considered broken, which is largely true. He didn’t look good against Canelo, and certainly not against Israil Madrimov.
Millions of Turki could save it
It must have been Turki who made the huge offer to lure Crawford into fighting Ennis. I think Crawford would want between $50 million and $150 million to fight “Boots,” even though he’s not as popular as Canelo Alvarez.
Terence just watched Canelo make $150 million and may feel like he took his place as the Face of Boxing with the victory. It confused him, thinking that a win would turn him into the up-to-date Canelo financially. If that were the case, Dmitry Bivol would be the huge money man in the sport, as he defeated Canelo in 2022 in much more impressive fashion than Crawford.
It’s a fight that won’t attract more viewers than the 41 million global viewers of Canelo vs. Crawford on Netflix. Ennis isn’t a huge enough name yet. So it would all come down to whether Turki wants this fight enough to overpay Crawford.
Judging by his last two performances against Canelo and Israil Madrimov, he is not worth $50-100 million. These were the efforts of fighters earning fifty thousand. For Crawford to make that kind of money, Turki would have to like him a lot and it would take more of a fight.
Since he has no interest in fighting him, he is more focused on getting down to 160 pounds to win the title for legacy purposes.
Crawford chases Adames
Bud just wants to win a sixth-division world title and get a nice payday by fighting WBC middleweight champion Carlos Adames. He is the one Crawford has a history with from sparring sessions where he supposedly beat Adames.
“I don’t know if it’s possible because ‘Boots’ would have to leave 54 and there’s a lot of work to do at 154. Crawford would have to come out with 168,” Edwards said.
Time is not on Boots’ side
Ennis cannot fight Crawford unless he tells his promoter Eddie Hearn that he has no interest in staying at 154 pounds and spending the next year or two building his resume. It’s a waste of time. He’ll still be two divisions away from Crawford, and the age excuse would be even more.
Chris Williams is a senior writer for Boxing News 24covering sports since 2013 and reporting on major events around the world. His relationships range from established champions to hungry prospects vying for recognition. Over the years, Chris has worked with many of boxing’s top brass, earning respect for his insightful analysis and insider perspective.
Top trainer and former world champion Robert Garcia has considered the outcome of a fantasy showdown between Terence Crawford and Manny Pacquiao.
The two generational greats reportedly came close to squaring off in 2021, back when Crawford was the WBO welterweight champion and ‘Pac Man’ held the WBA title.
Their unification match never materialised, though, as Pacquiao was scheduled to face Errol Spence Jr before ‘The Truth’ pulled out with a torn retina.
Instead, the Filipino legend ended up losing his WBA title to Yordenis Ugas at a stage when, while still serviceable, he was quite clearly past his best.
Crawford, meanwhile, was hitting top form around this time, just a few fights away from producing arguably a career-best performance against Spence.
He did, of course, manage to stop his welterweight rival in nine rounds, before moving up to 168lbs and becoming a three-division undisputed champion by dethroning Canelo Alvarez last September.
Based on those two performances, coach Garcia has told ESNEWS that he would favour ‘Bud’ to defeat even a prime version of Pacquiao.
“The Crawford that beat Spence – and the Crawford that beat Canelo – would probably beat Manny.”
While Crawford’s prime almost certainly came during his run of eight stoppages at welterweight, it is harder to pinpoint when Pacquiao ultimately reached his peak.
In terms of his most destructive performance at world level, however, many will point towards his second-round finish over Ricky Hatton in 2009.
While facing the ‘Hitman’ at 140lbs, Pacquiao would cement himself as a formidable welterweight champion soon after, dethroning Miguel Cotto with a 12th-round stoppage for the WBO title.
Former world champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk has been left between a rock and a hard place afterhis promotional contract with Zuffa Boxing has been terminated.
The Ukrainian dethroned long-reigning light-heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson in 2018, scoring an 11th-round stoppage that left his opponent with a brain injury.
Gvozdyk then made a WBC title defence before losing to Artur Beterbievwho extended his ruthless surge with a 10th-round finish in their 2019 encounter.
Since that defeat, ‘The Nail’ suffered a unanimous decision loss to David Benavidez in 2024, before entering a perceived 50/50 contest against Radivoje ‘Hot Rod’ Kalajdzic in February.
With both making their Zuffa debut, the two veterans delivered a thrilling battle in which Gvozdyk scored two knockdowns and had built a sizable lead.
In round seven, though, the 39-year-old found himself on the canvas and was ultimately stopped on his feet after getting dropped a second time.
Given his overall performance, one would suspect he had done enough to justify another meaningful opportunity, yet Gvozdyk has since told vRINGe that he will no longer be fighting under the Zuffa banner.
“They terminated the contract in February after a loss. That is, every promoter has the option that if a boxer loses, they have the right to terminate the contract. That’s exactly what they did. After the fight, everyone was saying how great it was. That everything was great. I rested. I started preparing as planned – somewhere around May. And then, around April, they told me I’d received an email terminating the contract.”
This is because his contract has been terminated, while Kalajdzic’s next outing with Dana White’s promotional outfit is confirmed for September 26 against Craig Richards.
As for Gvozdyk, it is difficult to predict what will come next but, at the age of 39, one would suspect that he is close to hanging up the gloves.
Still, he could hardly have been happy to part ways with Zuffa, which also terminated its contract with Robert Meriwether following his defeat to Tony Hirsch Jr in April.
Former British champion and Olympic bronze medallist David Price has assessed whether his countryman, Conor Bennpossesses the necessary hand speed to defeat Ryan Garcia.
The two welterweights will square off at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena on September 12, with Garcia making a first defence of his WBC world title.
It was arguably a career-best performance that saw him dethrone Mario Barrios in February, scoring a first-round knockdown before winning a wide unanimous decision.
But despite coming off this dominant display, Garcia was far less impressive when he returned from a year-long doping ban and lost on points to Rolando Romero in May 2025.
Still, many would argue that the 28-year-old has shown signs of world-class quality, while Benn remains glaringly unproven at the top level.
The 29-year-old has also not fought at 147lbs since 2022, with his last two outings resulting in unanimous decision victories over faded versions of Chris Eubank Jr and Regis Prograis.
Against Eubank, in particular, Benn’s speed seemed a key factor in their two middleweight encounters last year, despite him suffering a points defeat the first time around.
As he approaches this welterweight contest against Garcia, though, former heavyweight contender Price has told The Smith Brothers that he sees Benn contending with an unfamiliar disadvantage.
“I think I [favour Garcia]. Conor Benn’s got great hand speed, but I think [Garcia’s] hand speed could make the difference in the fight.”
Like Garcia, Benn tested positive for a banned substance – clomifene – and was eventually removed from his cancelled 2022 encounter with Eubank.
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