Former world champion believes Jaron 'Boots' Ennis can create path to Terence Crawford fight just as 'Bud' did with Canelo

For nearly two years, Terence Crawford campaigned for a fight with Canelo Alvarez, first planting seeds by easily defeating a larger man in Errol Spence Jr. He then moved up from being the undisputed welterweight king to snatch a 154-pound world title in a unanimous decision win over Israil Madrimov in August 2024.

After securing the crack at Canelo, ‘Bud’ made the most of his brightest spotlight yet, jumping up two more divisions and producing a boxing masterclass to defeat the Mexican sensation via a sound unanimous decision last month to reign as the new undisputed super middleweight ruler.

In laying down a successful blueprint to gain access to Canelo, Crawford might have given one boxer an apt script for how to get to him in the ring. That boxer's name is Jaron 'Boots' Ennis.

Saturday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena in his hometown of Philadelphia, Ennis clashes with Uisma Lima in a WBA super welterweight final title eliminator.

The bout marks Ennis’ first shot at 154 pounds after being a former unified welterweight world champion. If Crawford sticks to 168 pounds, who’s to say that Ennis cannot grab a super welterweight title before daring to be even greater by climbing up two more classes to challenge ‘Bud’? After all, it is the same route the Omaha, Nebraska native took to get Canelo in the ring.

Danny Garcia, a former two-division world champ and fellow Philly native, believes it can happen and that such a fight between the skilled pound-for-pound sweet scientists would thrill.

“Stylistically I think it’s a great fight,” Garcia told DAZN News during a recent Zoom session and ahead of his own fight against Daniel Gonzalez on October 18. “Let’s see … hopefully we get it. That would be amazing for boxing.”

While a ‘Bud’ vs. ‘Boots’ fight never came to fruition, despite the latter calling out the former, such a collision would present an intriguing matchup, Garcia believes, due to Ennis’ desire to tackle the best.

“‘Boots’ is hungry,” Garcia continued. “This is one of those guys who wants to … that’s the only risk for Crawford, fighting a young, hungry guy who wants everything you have.”

Both undefeated, Crawford has repeatedly dismissed the idea of fighting Ennis, using his post-fight press conference last month to wipe out any thought of dropping down to 154 pounds to make the clash happen.

However, Canelo gave Crawford the same treatment, dismissing any idea of the super fight while it was talked about during the early stages. And yet, it happened.

Perhaps, the onus is on ‘Boots’ to force the issue at 160 or 168 pounds … beginning with a standout performance this weekend.

Watch Jaron Ennis vs. Uisma Limalive on DAZN

Ennis vs. Lima is live on DAZN this Saturday night, October 11. Watch the fight and whole card with a DAZN subscription.

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