“Boots ain’t the face of boxing. Canelo is still the face of boxing. I’ve been dealing with this type of stuff for years. He’s just getting a glimpse of it,” said Crawford to the Breakfast Club 105.1 FM, talking about Jaron Ennis.
“Everybody is jumping on his train, but he don’t know those same people are going to be turning against him in a minute. Then he’s going to be at a point where he’s like, ‘Damn, I’m talented, but I’m not getting any credit. Everything I do, they say you supposed to do that. Every person I beat, they like, you supposed to beat.’
“He’s going to get to that point, and then there’s going to be another fighter that comes along, and then they’re going to start comparing them to him. Then they’re going to start taking all the credit away from him. Some people are going to give him credit. But he’s going to deal with the same thing that Floyd dealt with, Terence Crawford dealed with, Andre Ward and Shakur is dealing with right now. And history is going to repeat itself. He’s going to deal with the same things that everybody before him dealed with, and then he’s going to have to handle it.”
Crawford’s comparison isn’t a perfect fit. Ennis fights nothing like Crawford, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Andre Ward or Shakur Stevenson. He presses the action, accepts getting hit to land his own shots and chases knockouts, giving him a style that’s closer to Gennadiy Golovkin than the defensive champions Crawford mentioned.
Ennis has never enjoyed the type of widespread popularity that surrounded Canelo Alvarez, Ryan Garcia or Gervonta Davis. While many view ‘Boots’ Ennis as one of boxing’s top fighters, his commercial profile hasn’t reached that level despite victories over Eimantas Stanionis and Xander Zayas.
The timing of Crawford’s comments is also interesting. Following Ennis’ stoppage of Zayas last month, Crawford downplayed the performance and questioned the praise Ennis received. Now he is suggesting the attention Ennis is getting won’t last, arguing that boxing fans eventually turn on elite fighters by expecting them to dominate every opponent while giving them little credit when they do.
Only time will tell if Crawford’s prediction comes true. Ennis is one of boxing’s biggest attractions under the age of 30, but Crawford feels certain history is going to repeat itself. From his perspective, all the praise flying around today will eventually turn into heavy criticism.
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