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.
Oleksandr Usyk has shared his reaction to Anthony Joshua‘s dramatic knockout victory against Kristian Prenga.
Usyk nearly suffered his own shock defeat in May when he was pushed to the limit by kickboxing star Rico Verhoevenand two months on it was nrw teammate Joshua’s turn to come close to a massive upset loss that would have stunned the heavyweight division.
The Brit was dropped twice by massive underdog Prenga in the opening round of their clash in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Saturday, but ‘AJ’ managed to recover and record a big knockdown of his own in the second round that resulted in the stoppage victory.
Joshua and Usyk now train together, having famously had two battles for the unified world heavyweight title in 2021 and 2022, and the Ukrainian has had his say on his stablemate’s victory over Prenga.
Speaking to TalkSporttwo-time undisputed champion Usyk praised Joshua, insisting ‘AJ is back’ before predicting that Joshua will now claim a knockout win over long-term rival Tyson Fury in his next bout.
“Anthony Joshua is next undisputed champion. First round it’s a test but AJ is back.
It’s boxing, [the] big upper cut is good, it’s a knockdown. AJ [come] back and win.
“Greedy Belly [Fury] will speak now and say weak chin, Greedy Belly get out. AJ wins [against Fury], [he will] knock him out.”
Fury was victorious on Friday as he earned a seventh round retirement win against Mariusz Wach in Thailand, paving the way for the showdown against Joshua later this year.
Jake Paul was the last man to fight Anthony Joshua and he has now revealed his verdict on AJ’s chaotic victory over Kristian Prenga.
Joshua went up against Prenga in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Saturdayin a clash that was expected to be a comfortable win for the former world heavyweight champion in order to set up the long overdue battle against Tyson Fury.
Any hopes of seeing that clash were nearly ended after AJ was dropped twice in the opening round of the bout, though he was able to recover and claim the second round knockout to come out on top and prevent a stunning shock upset from taking place.
Saturday’s outing saw Joshua back in the ring for the first time since his sixth round triumph over YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul back in Decemberand now ‘The Problem Child’ himself has shared his reaction to his former rival’s victory over Prenga.
Posting on social mediaPaul praised AJ for earning the win, after returning to action following the tragic car crash he was involved in at the end of last year which took the lives of his two close friends.
“Happy for Joshua with that win after all he’s been through. Remembering Sina and Latz with this one.”
Happy for Joshua with that win after all he’s been through.
Remembering Sina and Latz with this one.
— Jake Paul (@jakepaul) July 25, 2026
The win for Joshua should now tee up for meeting with Fury later this year, after ‘The Gypsy King’ held up his end of the bargain by also securing a win in his warm-up bout on Friday, securing a seventh round retirement win against Mariusz Wach.
Anthony Joshua may have earned a knockout win over Kristian Prenga but the fight certainly didn’t unfold as most people expected.
Joshua was facing the Albanian in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Saturday, and it looked like a massive upset could be on the cards when he was dropped twice in the opening round.
‘AJ’ was able to recover and went on to secure a second round knockout victory to prevent the shock lossseemingly paving the way for the battle against Tyson Fury later this year.
One man who was ringside to witness the battle was former cruiserweight world champion Tony Bellewand he praised Joshua’s ability to turn things around in the fight after describing it as ‘chaos’.
“We predicted round two but I don’t think we foresaw that. That was chaos. He doesn’t see the uppercut coming and finds himself on the floor without knowing how he got there.
“The second one he did see it coming and he was able to clench down on the jaw. He got up and then the experience that he has he used tonight because he tied him up. Against Andy Ruiz he didn’t know what he was doing and didn’t know how to do that, but tonight he did.
“He showed once again there is no quit. To be that hurt in the first round and get up, that’s the recoveries of power. People talk about your chin, but it’s not, it’s the level of fitness that gets you up from the floor.
“When Joshua gets a fighter hurt he’s the best finisher in the division. Whenever he hurts someone they’re gone. I haven’t seen him drop anybody and they survive, only Andy Ruiz. He’s a ruthless finisher.”
The clash between Joshua and Fury is now expected to be announced soon for later this year, after Fury won his own interim fight on Friday by defeating Mariusz Wach.
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