Floyd Mayweather Jr. wants Terence Crawford to fight Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis next, given that Canelo Alvarez has turned a blind eye to his repeated requests for a fight.
With Canelo playing hard to get, Crawford needs to face his fears, take the fight against the young phenom, and pass the baton to the next generation. If Crawford lacks the confidence to fight Boots Ennis, how does he think he can be given a shot at Canelo?
Terence has got to know that Canelo and his manager/trainer Eddy Reynoso have noticed that Crawford isn’t willing to take risks by fighting Boots Ennis and that he’s just sitting, waiting to be given the fight by the Mexican star without getting off the sofa to earn it.
When Canelo sees that kind of behavior from Crawford, the last thing he wants to do is enable it by giving him the fight. It won’t help Canelo by fighting a guy with only one notable win [Errol Spence] on his 16-year resume, and has stopped taking risks with his career, believing that he’s entitled to the giant payday fight against him.
Looking at things logically, Mayweather feels that Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) doesn’t have any other options available to him, so he should face Boots (31-0, 28 KOs) if he’s not willing to move up to 168 to take a risky fight against David Benavidez to earn his dream fight against Canelo.
“Somebody’s got to give ‘Boots’ the opportunity. It’s been difficult for Terence Crawford to get the Spence rematch done, it’s been difficult to get the Canelo fight done, so his other option is to fight ‘Boots’ Ennis,” said Mayweather to FightHype.
Crawford’s win over Errol Spence Jr wasn’t a significant enough win for him to be selected by Canelo. Crawford has repeatedly denied that request, and he needs to understand that he must do more to put himself in a position to be granted the fight against the Mexican superstar.
Mayweather Jr. feels that Crawford should fight Ennis and David Benavidez, solidifying his spot as the most deserving of a clash against the undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo.
Ennis has been calling out Crawford for years, pushing him to give him a fight, and ignored every time. The IBF had to strip Crawford recently and elevate Ennis when he chose not to defend against him, which is a sign that Terence doesn’t believe he can win.