Unified welterweight champion Terence Crawford and IBF welterweight champion Jaron Ennis appear to be polarizing the sport, with accusations of both parties avoiding each other. Tensions escalated earlier this month when Crawford was stripped of his IBF title in anticipation of an unannounced rematch with Errol Spence Jr., whom he defeated decisively on July 29th of the same year. Despite numerous opportunities for the two welterweight champions to face each other, conflicting decisions by both teams have led to claims of ‘ducking’ from both fighters.
On October 21st, 2022, Terence “Bud” Crawford (40-0, 31 KO’s) was announced to face then #6-ranked WBO welterweight contender David Avanesyan (29-4-1, 17 KO’s), whom he defeated by technical knockout in December. This announcement followed failed negotiations with Errol Spence Jr. (28-1, 22 KO’s) in September.
Jaron Ennis (31-0, 28 KO’s) utilized Crawford’s decision to fight Avanesyan as evidence of him avoiding Ennis. Ennis, ranked #2 with the WBO at the time, claimed in a recent interview that Crawford could have easily chosen to fight him instead of Avanesyan, who was ranked below him.
“I didn’t fight for the IBF interim until he [Terence Crawford] made the decision to fight David Avanesyan,” Jaron Ennis told YSM media.
“Everyone in the welterweight division was waiting for Spence and Bud to fight, and Bud came out of nowhere to fight Avanesyan. He [David Avanesyan] was under me. He could’ve easily picked me.“
However, Ennis’s claim omitted the fact that just two days later, reports surfaced of Team Ennis lobbying the IBF for a fight with Errol Spence. This was revealed on October 23rd, two days after the announcement of Crawford vs. Avanesyan when Bozy Ennis unveiled that they had petitioned the IBF to face Errol Spence Jr.
Although a fight with Spence did not materialize, Ennis was eventually granted the opportunity to fight for the IBF interim welterweight title in January 2023 against Karen Chukhadzhian (23-2, 13 KO’s), resulting in a unanimous decision (UD) win for Ennis.
Team Ennis asserted that Terence Crawford should have faced Jaron Ennis earlier this year, but it was not mentioned that Ennis was already pursuing a fight with Spence Jr. when it was still uncertain who Crawford would face after failed negotiations with Team Spence.
This suggests that both fighters had the opportunity to negotiate with each other but neglected to do so in pursuit of their individual goals. While Crawford aimed to arrange a match with Spence for the undisputed title and fought Avanesyan after failed talks, Team Ennis sought a fight with Spence after the negotiations fell through and continued on to fight Karen Chukhadzhian for the IBF interim welterweight title.
The narrative seems to fault Terence Crawford for not pursuing a match with Jaron Ennis, but there was an attempt, at least on Team Crawford’s part, to arrange a fight.
“They reached out to me after I fought Karen [Chukhadzhian] in January, and Bud had already fought in December,” said Jaron Ennis.
“They reached out to me after with Karen, they were trying to get me, they were trying to sign me, things like that, and [then] they asked me would I fight them, and I said ‘yeah.’ After that, we heard nothing back.
“There was no contract sent. It was basically word-of-mouth.”
Ennis reveals that Crawford’s team approached him for a fight after his January bout with Karen Chukhadzhian, but a formal offer was never sent. Days after Ennis’ fight with Chukhadzian, Terence Crawford sued Top Rank president Bob Arum for alleged racial bias, and rumors of background talks between Crawford and Spence persisted since February.
Before and after Jaron Ennis’ fight with Karen Chukhadzhian, no offers were made from Team Ennis, whether formal or informal. Despite wanting to highlight Crawford’s apparent avoidance, there was at least one offer from Crawford’s side, while Ennis’s team made no apparent attempts to fight Crawford.
Team Ennis also asserted that Crawford should have actively sought to fight them, but they never clarified their own attempts to seek a fight with Spence. Moreover, Ennis could have lobbied to fight Crawford the same way they did for Spence, given there was enough time following the first failed negotiations in September 2022 for the undisputed welterweight fight.
The assumption that Crawford avoided Ennis is not accurate, as this would only be evident if a mandated fight between the two occurred where Crawford vacating his title would have made this assumption valid. However, there were never any offers from the Ennis camp to put Crawford in that position.
Another assumption is that Crawford should have actively sought to fight Ennis. However, as a world champion, it falls to the contender to pursue the fight. Crawford seemed more interested in becoming undisputed by fighting Spence, evident from the negotiations known since September 2022.
While both fighters share blame for not facing each other, the responsibility leans more towards Jaron Ennis and his team, expected to make the moves required to face Crawford, compared to Crawford, who was focused on becoming undisputed at the time. The undisputed welterweight fight between Spence and Crawford eventually occurred on July 29th and culminated in Crawford winning by technical knockout.
