Despite the boxing world’s desire for a showdown between Jaron “Boots” Ennis and Terence Crawford, Eddie Hearn remains optimistic about making it happen.
The world champion with three weight titles has expressed his disinterest in a fight with Ennis, as he believes it poses a high risk with little reward. However, Hearn believes that by offering a substantial amount of money, Crawford’s perspective may eventually shift. Meanwhile, Ennis’ new promoter is currently prioritizing organizing a mandatory defense of his IBF welterweight title against Cody Crowley in July, aiming to bring the exceptionally skilled Philadelphia native back to his hometown.
“Obviously he’s got Cody Crowley [as] his mandatory,” Hearn told a group of reporters on Thursday (April 18) following the Devin Haney-Ryan Garcia press conference at Barclays Centre in Brooklyn. “He has to get that out of the way. I would like to make ‘Boots’ against [Eimantas] Stanionis. I would like to make ‘Boots’ against [Mario] Barrios as well. I think now there’s a good opportunity to make big unification fights for ‘Boots,’ whereas previously there probably wasn’t.
“Crawford, [Errol] Spence, they all know how good Jaron is. And if you can bring the other guys into the mix and pay them well, I think they will fight Jaron Ennis. But he’ll be out in July hopefully, bring him home to Philadelphia, and then I wanna make a big unification matchup for him, ultimately leading to what I think is one of the biggest and best fights in the sport, which is Terence Crawford against Jaron Ennis.”
Fights with Lithuania’s Stanionis (14-0, 9 KOs, 1 NC) and San Antonio’s Barrios (28-2, 18 KOs) could become legitimate welterweight title unification fights for Ennis (31-0, 28 KOs, 1 NC) if Stanionis, the WBA world champion, and Barrios, the WBC interim titleholder, win their respective bouts on the Canelo Alvarez-Jaime Munguia undercard May 4 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. If Barrios beats Argentina’s Fabian Maidana (22-2, 16 KOs) and Stanionis defeats Venezuela’s Gabriel Maestre (6-0-1, 5 KOs), they’ll likely be elevated to the status of full champion because Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) is expected to relinquish his WBA and WBC welterweight titles to compete in the super-welterweight division next.
Crowley (22-0, 9 KOs), a southpaw from Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, figures to be a huge underdog when he encounters Ennis in their 12-round title fight.
Ennis, 26, will likely end more than a one-year layoff by the time he faces Crowley. He hasn’t fought since he knocked out Venezuela’s Roiman Villa (26-2, 24 KOs) in the 10th round last July at Boardwalk Hall’s Adrian Phillips Theatre in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing announced its impactful signing of Ennis to a multi-fight contract April 10.
