One day, Terence Crawford was on top of the world, 24 hours later, he wasn’t.
Earlier this week, Crawford went to bed in his palatial estate with all four world titles sitting on his mantle. A few hours later, he noticed that his IBF title
was suddenly missing. Just a few months after becoming an undisputed champion, the IBF sanctioning body came knocking at his door. Once Crawford revealed that he would be unable to face Jaron Ennis, his mandatory challenger, due to a contractual rematch with Errol Spence Jr., he was stripped and Ennis was elevated.
Although Ennis has officially begun his first world title reign, the 26-year-old wasn’t jumping for joy. Ennis was hoping that Crawford would simply get into the ring and fight him rather than being elevated. Crawford, while he wasn’t happy with how things played out, sympathizes with Ennis.
“I know it’s not ideal,” Crawford told a group of reporters. “I know he’s disappointed that he couldn’t win it off a champion and whatnot. I know it’s disappointing.”
The disappointment that Crawford is alluding to comes in different forms. On one end, he understands why Ennis is disappointed but on the other, Crawford is also disappointed himself.
The decision to be given a title via email has a bad connotation. From Crawford’s point of view, Ennis should’ve demanded another solution as opposed to sitting back and accepting their spurious title.
“If I was him, I’d rather fight for it,” continued Crawford. “I’d rather fight the number three guy if I couldn’t get the other guy. Don’t send me a belt in the mail. It just seems like everybody’s cool with being an e-mail champion now.”
Unfortunately for Ennis, that isn’t how things work. Seeing how he already held the interim IBF title, once Crawford was unable to fight him, this particular sanctioning body, which rarely hands out interim straps, simply allowed Ennis to reap the championship rewards.
It wasn’t his proudest moment, but Ennis is hopeful that his title will allow him to lure in some of the welterweight division’s more notable names. By and large, the smooth switch-hitter has been unable to fight the cream of the crop. Ironically enough, Crawford struggled with that very issue for years. But while he may have been forced to take on lower-tier foes for years and knows exactly what Ennis is dealing with, Crawford couldn’t offer him much in terms of advice.
“I know it’s frustrating that he can’t get those big fights but it’s part of the game.”
