Key points:
- Jaron “Boots” Ennis is being discussed as a stylistic nightmare for Terence Crawford, given his combination of size, hand speed and natural stance-switching
- Crawford briefly floated fighting Ennis on social media before the conversation shifted back toward a proposed Ryan Garcia fight
- Crawford’s last outing against Israil Madrimov drew criticism for a slower, more passive performance than his usual standard
- Ennis, a natural junior middleweight, offers considerably less commercial safety than a smaller opponent like Garcia
Jaron “Boots” Ennis is fast becoming the one welterweight name Terence Crawford’s got genuine reason to stay away from – and it’s not really about styles anymore, it’s about size and speed all at once.
“Bud better stay behind the mic,” Amino Boxing wrote on X, capturing the mood building around the matchup. “This not one of them basic dudes you fought that you can easily read and pick apart. This dude faster than you, bigger than you, and smarter than you.”
Crawford floated it, then walked it back
Crawford briefly put the idea out there himself on social media. Ennis said yes almost instantly. The conversation’s since drifted back toward Ryan Garcia instead, for what it’s worth.
The Madrimov fight didn’t help his case
Crawford’s last time out, a decision win over Israil Madrimov, got picked apart for exactly the kind of low-output, passive stuff that doesn’t hold up well against someone switching stances and throwing feints Crawford couldn’t quite solve.
Ennis brings a different problem entirely
Boots is a natural junior middleweight who could fight at 160 tomorrow if he fancied it – considerably more size and danger than the smaller, less disciplined names Crawford’s leaned toward in recent years. Nothing about the fight’s close to happening. Doesn’t stop it being the one that actually worries people.