Terence Crawford has weighed in on the drama between Jaron Ennis and Vergil Ortiz Jr.
Ennis, currently IBF Welterweight World Champion, had previously welcomed a fight with Ortiz, who competes one division up. Frustrated at the lack of opportunity to unify the 147 division, the 27-year-old was linked strongly with a move up to 154 to make the match-up happen.
It was then revealed that ‘Boots’ ultimately turned down the opportunity to face Ortiz at super-welterweight in Saudi Arabia to instead remain in his current division, even despite his team talking up the fight considerably. This last minute u-turn led to many in the sport, from fans to Hall of Fame fighters, claiming that he has ducked the challenge.
Ennis of course says otherwise. He told YSM Sports Media that it was a miscommunication.
“I reached out to everybody involved to get down to the bottom of what was going on and it was a bunch of miscommunication. I got a great team, and I hired them to do their job, but I just felt like I was out of the loop. From now on, I will be more in tune of what’s going on.
“They called on the deadline and I was undecided. I want to unify or be undisputed. Everybody was calling me an ‘Email champion’ because I was never able to take a title from somebody. I was given a belt. I never got that feeling of winning a world title and taking it from somebody.”
Another man at super-welterweight ‘Boots’ has expressed an interest in facing is Terence Crawford. The four-weight world champion vacated his undisputed belts at 147 last year to move up, allowing Ennis to become the IBF Champion.
Crawford was recently asked when speaking to Boxing Social if he believes the 27-year-old from Philly ducked Ortiz.
“I don’t know. I don’t know what was the negotiations or anything. I don’t want to say anybody is ducking anybody when I don’t know the situation at hand. But from the looks of it, everybody coming at him saying that he ducked. I don’t know.”
Ennis also told YSM Media that the prospect of moving up to face Crawford is different because of his elite status in the sport.
