Coach Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis says he views unified three-belt champion Errol ‘The Truth’ Spence Jr as the #1 fighter in the welterweight division because he has most of the belts.
Unlike many fans, Bozy believes the Spence vs. Terence Crawford fight will happen this year. We can only hope that Bozy is right because both fighters are getting old, and it’s quite possible that one or both will move up to 154 in 2023, possibly without fighting each other to prove conclusively who is #1 at 147.
With the emergence of Boots Ennis, the Spence-Crawford fight has lost a lot of the meaning that it would have had if the two had fought many years ago because the contest winner won’t be viewed as the actual top dog.
For them to be seen as the #1 guy, they’ll need to defeat Boots Ennis (29-0, 27 KOs), and considering how they’re both aging and looking slower, they might be too long in the tooth to accomplish that.
Ennis, the father of unbeaten 147-lb contender Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, says he would have never done what Terence Crawford did by backing out of his talks with Spence to fight David Avanesyan on December 10th on BLK Prime PPV.
Crawford had the chance to fight for the undisputed championship at 147, and he walked away from the negotiations to fight an obscure contender on BLK Prime.
“You never know with Spence because Spence is not scared. It’s just business. Boots is high risk, low reward,” said Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis to Fighthype when asked if IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr will defend against Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis if he captures the IBF interim 147-lb title next Saturday night against Karen Chukhadzhian.
“I think it’s going to happen because Spence really wants the fight. I know he wants the fight,” said Bozy when asked if he thinks we’ll see Spence vs. Terence Crawford in 2023.
“The stuff that Crawford done. I would have never done that,” said Bozy about Crawford bailing on the talks with Spence to go fight David Avanesyan on BLK Prime PPV.
“Yeah, I watched it [Crawford vs. Avanesyan]. That guy was not in his league. You could beat him. You could see how he was throwing his punches. One thing about Crawford, he starts out slow, but he gets smarter and smarter as the rounds go on.
“Right now, I think Spence is,” said Bozy when asked if he believes Crawford is #1 pound-for-pound. “The reason I say he’s #1 is because he’s got three of the belts. In the welterweight, I say Spence. Look what he had to do to get to where he’s got to through the top guys.
“If they give us the opportunity to fight for the WBO, we’ll take that too,” said Bozy about his son Jaron ‘Boots’ when asked if the reason he chose to go the IBF route is to try and grab all three titles Spence has. “We want to get all the titles [147], and once we get all the titles, then we want to move up to 154.
“They’re both great fighters, but they have different styles, though, and they’re both great fighters. I’m not going to say he’s better than him,” said Bozy when asked if he considers Spence better than undisputed junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo.
“I know Jermell is bigger & stronger [than Spence]. When it comes to styles, they have different types of styles. I don’t know. I know they were sparring together, and I heard about the sparring and all that. You’ve got those little eight-ounce gloves on, that’s a different situation. I can’t really say. I like both of those guys,” said Ennis.