Terence Crawford stripped as Jaron "Boots" Ennis is elevated to IBF welterweight champion
Terence Crawford (40-0, 31KO) is no longer the undisputed welterweight champion after he was stripped of the IBF title, according to the organization's updated rankings at 147 pounds.
Interim titleholder Jaron "Boots" Ennis (31-0, 28KO) was elevated to the full IBF welterweight champion.
"Bud" Crawford, 36, defeated Errol Spence Jr. in July to unify the welterweight titles via ninth-round TKO. He entered the bout with the WBO title and added the IBF, WBA and WBC belts to his collection.
After the bout, the IBF ordered Crawford to defend against his mandatory, Ennis. Crawford contractually owes Spence an immediate rematch after the latter exercised the rematch clause. The IBF, however, does not recognise rematch clauses as an exception to mandatory obligations. It's the same reason why Tyson fury was stripped immediately after unifying against Wlad Klitschko in 2015, and it could happen to "The Gypsy King" a second time.
The winner of the proposed February bout between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight championship will face a similar issue. The IBF already informed both parties that the winner must face Filip Hrgovic next or be stripped despite the rematch clause.
No date has been set for the Crawford-Spence rematch, though sources say it was being planned for February 2024.
Spence won the IBF title from Kell Brook in May 2017. Since that victory, Spence has fought seven times and made only one mandatory defense, a first-round KO of fringe contender Carlos Ocampo in June 2018.
Ennis is widely regarded as one of the best young talents in boxing, but he hasn't been able to secure a top-flight opponent. That should change now that he has a world title.
The 26-year-old Philadelphian is coming off a 10th-round KO of Roiman Villa in July. Ennis is ESPN's No.3 welterweight.
IBF president Daryl Peoples hasn't yet commented on the news, but fight fans have been very vocal in their disappointment.
Reactions
Mike Coppinger: Boots has earned a title shot and deserves one. That’s not the point. The question: Why did IBF allow Spence to make one mandatory in 5.5 years, but as soon as Crawford won the title, mandatory was suddenly due? IBF prez Daryl Peoples didn’t respond to a message seeking comment.
Tom Gray: If ever a fighter deserved an extention on a mandatory, it's Terence Crawford. We're talking about the first undisputed welterweight champ in 18 YEARS! As per @MikeCoppinger, Spence made ONE IBF mandatory defence in FIVE-AND-A-HALF YEARS. That is preposterous!
Steve McVeigh: Imagine Ennis made a stand. Didn't accept becoming a world champion in these circumstances. It's an awful way to get a world title strap. I'm sure Boots would love to take it off a champion. That's how champions are forged. Beat the best. It's not a good look for boxing.
Steve Kim: As much as I like Boots, this is fact, he, alongside Ortiz and Stanionis, all played the waiting game, didn't enforce their #1 positions and/or accepted step-aside money in lieu of facing Spence and Crawford in recent years.
Max Callendrillo: Errol Spence didn't fight his IBF mandatory for YEARS and didn't get stripped.
Grant Dudley: The IBF are too much man, seriously? He has to by law fulfil his contractual agreement & obligation to rematch Spence, stripping a deserved undisputed champion of a belt when he hasn't refused to fight his mandatory but it is impossible is pathetic, got no time for this at all.
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