Terence Crawford could have hopped on the bandwagon blasting Jaron “Boots” Ennis following his unimpressive unanimous decision win over Karen Chukhadzhian on Saturday night at the Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia, but he didn’t go that route.
Instead, Crawford took to social media to offer his would-be rival some advice and a smidgeon of encouragement.
Crawford admitted he didn’t see the fight but heard about Chukhadzhian giving Boots more than he bargained for in their rematch. The four-division champion told Boots, “every nights not going to be the same,” and urged him to “never get too comfortable in this game.”
Here is Crawford’s post on X.
Crawford’s post was sage advice and pretty admirable–especially by boxers’ standards. Ennis has repeatedly called Crawford out for a fight.
I spoke to both men about the callout earlier this year, and while there is mutual respect, there appeared to be some frustration on Ennis’ part because Crawford wouldn’t accept his challenge. After Saturday’s win that saw Ennis take far too many punches and again struggle to get the finish against an opponent that even Boots called a “lower-tier guy.”
Ennis maintains his desire to fight better competition despite the less-than-impressive showing on Saturday. He spoke to the media after Saturday’s fight and shared his belief that if he were fighting better fighters, it would bring the best out of him. That remains to be seen, and it is a tough sell to fans and others in the boxing community.
Fighters like Ryan Garcia didn’t waste time offering harsh criticism following Ennis’ victory. Garcia predicted he’d knock Boots out if they fought, and based on the frequency in which Chukhadzhian was landing his left hook, it doesn’t sound like a crazy prediction when you consider how deadly Garcia is with the same punch.
Ennis did have an answer for Garcia, whom he said only “talks and tweets.”
Golden Boy Promotion’s Oscar De La Hoya immediately posted about a potential fight between Boots and Vergil Ortiz Jr. That fight could potentially headline the suddenly more practical Matchroom-vs-Golden-Boy fight card.
At this point, if Ennis leaves 147 and potential unification fights against fighters like Brian Norman Jr. and Mario Barrios behind, a scrap with Ortiz does seem like a good matchup. Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn has said Premier Boxing Champion’s WBA welterweight champion Eimantas Staniosis is interested in fighting Ennis in a unification bout.
Hearn mentioning this potential fight sounds like a move to push his fighter into a more winnable matchup rather than throwing him to the sharks at 154 pounds. Based on what we saw on Saturday night, Ennis should probably follow Hearn’s nudging and Crawford’s advice.
Continue to work on his craft and hone those skills against fighters like Staniosis, Barrios, and Norman before moving up to take on bigger and better competition.