Crawford-Ennis is still fighting six to nine months away

Eddie Hearn believes Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis will have raised his popularity enough in the next “six or months” for Terence Crawford to agree to fight him.

Not Fear — Just Business

Matchroom Boxing promoter Hearn doesn’t think Crawford will want to fight Ennis (35-0, 31 KOs) until there’s a lot of money on the table. It’s not fear on the part of undisputed super middleweight champion Crawford. According to Hearn, Terence “knows what ‘Boots’ is like, and will want top dollar for his efforts.

Hearn is convinced that the younger 28-year-old Ennis can already beat the 38-year-old Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs) and will prove it to the world when the fight is finally made. Ennis will have to work quickly to build the fight up big enough to get the Crawford, Omaha, Nebraska, native to agree before he retires.

The $50 million problem

With the $50 million Terence made from his legacy fight against Canelo Alvarez on September 13, 2025, he won’t be fighting much longer. If Crawford sits out a year and takes his customary victory lap, he won’t be back until September or October 2026.

Crawford won’t want to take a massive pay cut to fight Ennis. He will expect the same money he received for the Canelo fight because it is actually a tougher fight for him to go up against Ennis. ‘Boots’ is not old and flat-footed like Alvarez.

If all goes well, ‘Boots’ should already have wins over Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Bakhram Murtazaliev managed to increase his popularity enough for the money to be there for Crawford.

Hearn’s six-month forecast

“At the moment the money is not there because ‘Boots’ is not big enough, but he will in six or nine months. I’m just putting it out there. Tell me a bigger fight in boxing than Terence Crawford and ‘Boots’. A realistic fight that can be made,” said promoter Eddie Hearn iFL TVand predicts that Terence Crawford will want a lot of money before agreeing to fight Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis.

Six months is too early for Ennis to gain enough popularity to lure Crawford into a fight. This could take 9 to 10 months as it would allow Ennis to squeeze in two big fights at 154. The negotiations with Vergil Ortiz Jr. will be complicated for Hearn and Ennis. But once they get that fight out of the way, dealing with Bakhram should be easier.

Can boots grow fast enough?

“I do,” Hearn said when asked if Ennis could beat Crawford. “Don’t forget he’s 10 years younger than Terence Crawford. It’s all well and good for me to say he (‘Boots’) is pound-for-pound in the making. We’ve got to get the CV to match it.”

Written by Ken Woods, Ringside Boxing Analyst covering world title fights since 2018.