Terence Crawford has been retired since December, but talk of a potential superfight with Jaron Ennis refuses to go away and Crawford isn’t dismissing Ennis’ ability entirely, even if he isn’t rattled by it either.
Crawford retired as an unbeaten three-division undisputed champion, joining Floyd Mayweather, Andre Ward, and Joe Calzaghe in that exclusive group after dethroning Canelo Alvarez at 168 pounds, a run that also saw him claim major titles across five weight classes.
Ennis, meanwhile, has kept building his own case. He most recently stopped Xander Zayas in the seventh round after dethroning him for the WBO and WBA super-welterweight titles in June, and now appears set to face IBF champion Josh Kelly in a unification bout later this year while still expressing openness to a fight with Crawford.
Speaking with Ring Champs, Crawford acknowledged that on paper, several of Ennis’ attributes: his hand speed, counterpunching, volume, reflexes, youth, and athleticism are the kind of things that look like real problems from the outside.
But he made clear that assessment changes once he’s actually in the ring, saying those same concerns tend to evaporate once he gets a feel for an opponent and realizes they don’t have everything needed to beat him.
On the outside, we look and we say: ‘This might cause me some problems, [or] this might cause me some problems’. But, when you get in there, none of that causes you no problems, because you be so focused on what could cause you some problems that, when you get in there, you be like, ‘Man, that s**t was nothing’.
“Boots got fast hands; he’s a good counterpuncher; he’s a volume puncher; he throws punches in bunches … he got good reflexes; he’s young; he’s athletic. You think about stuff like that but then, when you get in there, you say, ‘Oh, this dude ain’t got everything it takes [to beat me]’.
Nothing suggests the fight is close to happening, especially with Crawford insisting he’s happy in retirement and Ennis still focused on unifying at 154 pounds against Kelly and WBC champion Sebastian Fundora.
But as long as both fighters keep addressing each other publicly, the door to a Crawford comeback against Ennis remains at least theoretically open.
