The IBF now lists Jaron “Boots” Ennis as the sole welterweight champion in their new ratings. Ennis was previously the interim champion behind Terence “Bud” Crawford, who claimed the WBC, WBA and IBF belts three months ago against Errol Spence Jr. With that win, Crawford became the undisputed champion in two weight divisions. That distinction, however, was short-lived. With Crawford committed to a rematch with Spence, possibly out of the division, the IBF elevated Ennis.
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I do not think it matters to Crawford because he was all for moving up anyway. This may open a few more doors for Ennis to get some real fights now.
I agree, and having one less belt will not be a factor in how much Bud earns from here on out.
Anyone surprised?
Crawford won’t be bothered. What is bothersom though is how Boots (or any boxer) ‘becomes champion, gets elevated to the champion from interim champion. It should just be #1 and #2 that then fights for the title.
Well said, and I think the fighters would prefer to win a title in the ring
You are right. Titles should be won in the ring. Otherwise, the results can be humiliating and laughable. Such is the case with Ken Norton. He is the only heavyweight champion that never won the title in the ring.
That only tells who how rougeerand crooked ths IBF is.
Absolutely, earn your titles. But, since everyone gets a trophy…..
It’s like an amateur winning a Golden Gloves title by walkover!
Woah-woah-woah! It’s not my fault that Orlando broke his wrist….oh, wait a minute, were talking about elevated champs here right? Never mind.
Well, this gives Crawford all the more reason to rematch Spence at 154. Since undisputed is not on the line there’s really nothing in it for Errol, other than to avenge a loss. There’s absolutely nothing in it for Crawford except for another payday. As for the fans, there is absolutely positively nothing in it for us.
Undisputed champions just don’t stick around too long. If you think about it, we had a run where we’ve had several recently and all of them are gone except Canelo. Josh Taylor, Charlo, Haney and now Crawford all got stripped and Inoue vacated and moved up. Even on the women’s side, Savannah Marshall and Jessica McCaskill both got stripped. So I don’t think this comes as any surprise, but surely Crawford got what he wanted: From now until the end of time, the first male to be undisputed in two different weight classes in the four-belt era is Terence Crawford.
Very well stated Lucy! Given Crawford’s age and accomplishments at this point, the ONLY fight’s he should entertain are those that stuff his pockets with as much money as he can get!! High profile and legacy cementing fights!! In my eyes he has paid his dues.
Yep! No reason to fight Boots for what would surely be GOOD money but not spectacular money. He rematches Spence and then goes, like you said, to chase the one or two absolute biggest paydays that he can and probably calls it a day.
There will never be a rematch so you can forget about that.
From a viewer point of view competition matters most .Matter of fact a couple of years ago Bud said in an interview that if he wants to retire he can because he said he made alot of money so if he truly feels like this don’t look at these super pay days and fight Boots
I don’t agree with that because we still don’t know how good Boots is. He’s head and shoulders over the guys that he’s been in with, but he hasn’t been in with top guys. So we don’t go into that fight thinking that it’s 50/50 or close and, should he win, we don’t come out of it thinking more about Crawford than before, like we do after Spence. We just think, primarily, Boots wasn’t THAT guy or he wasn’t ready yet.
This is especially the case because HUGE money is hard to come by nowadays. Spence Crawford didn’t even hit 700k buys. With more recent declines in viewership (especially with Fury Ngannou), there is no sense taking anything unless it is for a lot of money and/or legacy enhancing. Let’s not forget too, this is a dangerous game. You risk your life in every single fight.
He can retire today and still be thought of as one of the best welterweights ever to live.
Well said. I think the longest true champ in recent history was Hagler. Now it’s a more of an accomplishment for your record. Between politics and the amount of belts available, it’s tough to keep a 4 fight per year schedule.
It actually becomes antithetical to being a good champion and giving the fans what they want. You have to balance so many BS mandatories that, honestly, it isn’t even worth thinking about.
There is one champion at 147. Anyone who thinks otherwise is either super biased or just doesn’t know what’s going on.
I agree with you all saying here I just hope Crawford don’t fight against spencer again for unnecessary rematch
He is still undisputed. No one disputes he is the true welterweight king. The guy literally just won the belt ..These belts create more confusion then clarity
Not anymore do you know what strips mean???
I think you are confusing undisputed with unbeatable
In 2001 IBF founder Robert W. Lee was convicted of tax evasion & money laundering and sentenced to prison. Prosecutors contended Lee accepted bribes in exchange for rankings that gave boxers chances at lucrative title fights. Lee’s ridiculous defense was that he was picked on because he was Black! Unbelievable!!!
There’s still some individuals that are still bitter over Spence jr getting destroyed, and may have influenced the IBF on this move. By not getting the rematch commitment with Crawford and not being accepted by a TV platform yet could be understandable.
Why a rematch ??? For to lose again ???
The first fight was not even close so stop playing race card
Crawford doesn’t want the rematch and is being forced to take it because he has to honor it………he shouldn’t of never been stripped, especially after only 3 months when fighters go damn near their entire career avoiding mandatorys
It is Unbelievable the rest of these corrupt organizations, commissions, and judges aren’t investigated and prosecuted the same.
Former WBC light heavyweight champion Graciano Rocchigianni sued the WBC for $30 million and won, nearly bankrupting the organization. The WBC, which was run by that corrupt Lebanese guy living in Mexico, took Rocchigianni’s belt from him and handed it over to Roy Jones, after the German legitimately won the vacant title from Michael Nunn. That might’ve been Rocchigianni’s greatest victory!
And they are still being run by corrupt people lol
Truth, that seems to be the norm nowadays, when you get caught doing something illegal or morally corrupt, spin it into some cowardly shield of you being a victim of some type of discrimination.
Crawford should fight Boots. I feel this is just a way of letting him off the hook. Crawford Boots is one of the best fights in boxing right now, right there with Beterbiev and Bivol. I feel like moving Boots from Interim to regular champ is because Crawford is showing zero interest in ever fighting Boots, which just sucks and is because he knows he can make more money by fighting easier opponents like Spence or Tank, and make just as much fighting the bums he has been fighting for the past 5 years. Boots is being screwed, but the big losers are the fans, as always.
The battle to get to undisputed is one thing, its almost impossible to keep any length of time. These organizations come up with mandatories with people that don’t have a true shot at winning and barely anyone has heard of. To me if you have all the belts, none of this interim crap, you should be picking who you fight. You earned it! Canelo does Everytime.
Undisputed means you’re the best in the world and nobody can dispute that. If you’re not going to fight the best, there is a dispute. By not even entertaining a fight with Boots, Crawford opened the door to dispute.
Did you not know he had a rematch clause to honor? Boots was Spence’s mandatory over a year and didn’t fight him and wasn’t ever stripped………especially after just 3 months
We’ve all have heard the term Fake News, we should regard all alphabet sanctioning bodies champions in the same way when they take it upon themselves to give out titles like candy on Halloween. Fact you cannot be a world champion when there are several other bodies with their own version of alphabet world champions. Let’s restore the mindset of the Lineal idea of where the man who beat the man and say screw all the sanctioning bodies.
Agree………and has been getting away with it for years. But people don’t want or like to hear the truth
No, what’s “Unbelievable” is the movie “Killers of the Flower Moon”, starring Robert Dinero and Leonardo DiCaprio, but then again on second thought…
And this has anything to do with a belt being stripped. Oh, I forgot, it’s DMV must be on his period like a b___!
pfft
Nobody wants to see another easy beating from Crawford to Spence again do they? Crawford may knock Spence out early this time.
What does being stripped in a 3 month period has to do with nobody wanting to see a rematch? That’s a entirely different subject
Proves once again why the sanctioning bodies are absolutely worthless and rotten to the core. People ramble on and on about unifying all the belts but once you do the phony alphabet bodies start striping you of their recognition. The worse thing that ever happened to boxing was when the words World Champion was radically cheapened by the WBA-WBC-IBF-WBO. The Lineal Champion is all that matters and there is no belt for that because the real champion doesn’t need a belt.
We’ve all have heard the term Fake News, we should regard all alphabet sanctioning bodies champions in the same way when they take it upon themselves to give out titles like candy on Halloween. Fact you cannot be a world champion when there are several other bodies with their own version of alphabet world champions. Let’s restore the mindset of the Lineal idea of where the man who beat the man and say screw all the sanctioning bodies.
For once I agree with the sanctioning body idiots.
Why?
How could you possibly? Just wondering how? Especially, when guys haven’t fought mandatory opponents or defending the title in over a year or better. He only had the title 3 months and no one fights in 3 months of their previous championship fight
I wonder if the IBF is going to return the sanctioning fee Crawford paid to fight Spence????
well just when you think the WBC was the biggest money grab BS organization the IBF one ups them with this crap
IBF you are a joke ! First you okay unification fight knowing there would be a rematch clause, then they strip him! Unbelievable yet expected. If it wasn’t the IBF, WBA , WBC would of done the same. Just a shame what the sport is becoming by the people running them.
Until we have a national federal boxing commission,we all are being raked over the coals.
Always back door deals in boxing.
Crawford is still Champ regardless of belts. This is why Boxing needs reform.
I wonder in the history of boxing if there was ever a time where boxers went on strike because of the ” shady ” way boxing was being run ?
It doesn’t matter what the IBF thinks. Bud is undisputed, end of story. Until he loses to someone at welterweight or he retires, everyone else is a paper champion. Crawford was purposely frozen out by the PBC for many years and now that he took all of their belts, the PBC is pulling strings to get one back.
I guess this only count against certain fighters? There are guys that have held belts for over a year or better that haven’t defended and nothing has happened.
The IBF made it very clear that Boots was the mandatory challenger for the winner of Spence-Crawford. I think Boots is so overrated, it’s not even funny. None of his opponents even try to win. (Thank Al Haymon for that.) In modern days of boxing, they don’t allow rematches right away, unless there is controversy in the first fight. Who wants to see that rematch anyway? Crawford is tailor-made for Spence, and Spence looked the worst that any champ has probably ever looked pre-fight. So bad in fact that the theory is Al Haymon kept the weigh in private so as not to discourage PPV sales. At least the IBF does not give out bogus “participating or commemorative belts”, which is a favorite past-time of the WBC/WBA. (The WBO only does commemorative belts if it’s some big deal fight, for them it is rare.) But in today’s modern boxing world, you have to fight your mandos. If you win a title, you inherit the responsibilities of the former champion, and must sign to fight your mando in 90 days.