Jaron Ennis continues to make a case for a fight against Terence Crawford.
The undefeated Philly star was upgraded to IBF World Champion when Crawford made the decision to move up in weight and recently defended his belt with a fifth round stoppage of David Avanesyan – a man Crawford stopped in six.
‘Boot’s Ennis said Crawford’s name again post-fight despite the two-weight undisputed champion having a super-welterweight world title challenge next month against Israil Madrimov.
Speaking on his podcast, The Fight, world championship trainer turned analyst Teddy Atlas believes ‘Boots’ is more likely to move up a division for the ‘Bud’ bout rather than stick around at 147 to collect more belts.
“At the end of the day, Ennis moves forward. I believe you’re gonna see him move up and try to get the Crawford fight. That would make sense in trying to search for greatness, and of course money.”
Atlas then said that it would take Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh to get Ennis – undefeated in 32 – and Crawford – undefeated in 40 – to step through the ropes together. He believes, as with most in the sport, that there’s no chance Crawford moves back down to welterweight.
“The only way he takes that fight, he wins the [super-welterweight] title – and he’s into a solid guy [Madrimov] to win that title – but if he wins that title in August, and Turki Alalshikh comes up with extraordinary money, all of a sudden you see a reason to take that fight. Again, at that weight class.”
No fan could call the match-up a bad one, but ‘Bud’ has kept his sights set on a bigger, at the very least in weight, challenge in the form of undisputed super-middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, another bout Alalshikh wants to see.
