Terence Crawford sounded disgruntled on Wednesday, discussing unhappiness of being stripped of his IBF welterweight title by the sanctioning body and interim champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis being elevated to full champ.
Crawford says that if the International Boxing Federation were planning on stripping the title, they should have done it while Errol Spence held it rather than waiting until he won the title.
Terence then took a shot at Boots, saying that some guys are “cool with being email champions.” Boots had been trying to get a title shot before Crawford won the IBF title, but Spence, instead, chose to fight Terence for the undisputed welterweight championship.
Crawford should have done his homework ahead of time and known that he would lose the IBF title if Spence activated the rematch clause in the contract.
Would Crawford have ducked Boots anyway?
The way that Crawford was talking recently before his IBF title was stripped, he wasn’t going to defend against Boots Ennis anyway. So it’s unclear why he’s upset about it happening now. If Crawford wasn’t going to defend against Boots (31-0, 28 KOs), why act like he was wronged by the IBF? It doesn’t make sense.
Some fans believe that Crawford was going to duck Boots Ennis because he’s younger, a better knockout puncher, a better mover, and can switch hits like him.
Boots can do everything Crawford does, but better and he’s young & hungry. He’s kryptonite for an old guy like Crawford, who is just thinking cash-out at this point in his career.
Crawford would have no advantage to rely on against Boots, and he would have gotten touched up badly by him.
For a fighter that just made millions, like Crawford, the last thing he needs is to take a lot of punishment from a young, hungry lion, like Boots Ennis when you’ve got one foot out the door into retirement. Who needs that? Certainly not Crawford.
The IBF did Crawford a favor
In a way, the IBF did Crawford a solid by stripping him because they saved him from looking bad in front of the boxing world by openly ducking Boots.
“They pick & choose who they want to grant certain things to. If they were going to do that, I feel they should have stripped Spence prior to the fight, given that they knew it was a two-fight deal going into the fight,” said Terence Crawford to Fight Hub TV, reacting to the IBF recently stripping him of his IBF welterweight title and elevating mandatory Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis to full champion.
The IBF were going to force Spence to fight Boots Ennis if he didn’t take the undisputed championship fight with Crawford. T
hey gave Spence an exception to face Crawford, but the winner would have to defend against Boots. When Crawford won the IBF belt, Boots became his inherited problem, and he obviously wasn’t going to defend against him.
“They knew I couldn’t get out of my contract with Spence to fight Boots,’ said Crawford about the IBF. “If I was him, I’d have told them that I just want to fight for it. I’d rather fight the #3 guy if I couldn’t get the other guy. Don’t send me a belt in the mail.
“It just seems like everybody is cool with being email champions just to be called a world champion,” said Crawford about Boots Ennis. “He got three belts. Two interims. Now, they’re [IBF] going to send him another belt. He’s going to have three of the same belts.
“Come on, man. You’re walking around with three. I know it’s frustrating that he [Boots] can’t get those fights, but it’s part of the game,” said Crawford.
