In a recent interview with FightHype, Bozy Ennis, the father of IBF (Interim) Welterweight champion Jaron Ennis, suggested WBO champion Terence Crawford was avoiding his son. Using Crawford’s previous opponent, David Avanesyan, as an example, the father/trainer of the young American contender accused Crawford of “moving around them”, rather than facing Ennis directly.
In response to Bozy Ennis being asked whether and why Terence Crawford (39-0, 30 KO’s) was supposedly avoiding Jaron Ennis (30-0, 27 KO’s), Ennis did not hesitate to provide his reasoning.
“High-risk, low reward.” Bozy explained. “Right now, he should be able to fight us because he just fought Avanesyan. We wanted to fight everybody at the top 5.”
David Avanesyan (29-4-1, 17 KO’s), who was ranked lower than Jaron Ennis prior to facing Crawford, gained the opportunity for Crawford’s world title in December, but failed to make an impact when he was stopped in just the fifth round. Since Crawford chose to make a voluntary defense against a fighter who despite his positioning on the official ranking boards was considered unknown, many have wondered why Crawford couldn’t hand the same opportunities to up-and-coming American fighters like Jaron Ennis and Vergil Ortiz Jr. (19-0, 19 KO’s) who are both undefeated, young and highly-talented.
However, it is important to note that both Ennis and Ortiz Jr. had the opportunity to fight for the WBO mandatory position, which is now claimed by Alexis Rocha (22-1, 14 KO’s) – who himself is now within position to face Crawford after the latest order by the WBO. Ortiz Jr. was officially ordered to face WBA ‘regular’ welterweight champion Eimantas Stanionis (14-0, 9 KO’s) in November of 2022, barring him from then competing for the other sanctioning bodies’ world titles.
Despite Ortiz’ position as the #1 contender on the WBO rankings, this effectively meant that the #2-rated Ennis would have been first in line to face Crawford given Ortiz was preoccupied with fulfilling his mandate to face Stanionis.
Ennis has, as of recently, become the IBF interim champion after defeating Karen Chukhadzhian (21-2, 11 KO’s) in January this year, having preferred to take his chances to face Errol Spence Jr. (28-0, 22 KO’s) by claiming the interim title rather than wait for an opportunity to fight Terence Crawford who was tied to fighting David Avanesyan as of October.
Bozy Ennis’ comments seem somewhat contradictory given Jaron willingly chose the path that would see him gain an opportunity versus Spence, rather than Crawford. It is also rather uncommon for boxers who are champions to seek fights against contenders; usually it is the other way around in boxing.
With Crawford now expected to face Rocha – while a fight with Spence has also been teased, Jaron Ennis’s actions have made it unlikely a fight with Crawford can be made anytime soon, but he will have better opportunities to face the Welterweight division’s unified champion in Spence who has been linked to fight former unified Welterweight champion, Keith Thurman (30-1, 22 KO’s), since January.
