Throughout the latter years of his professional career, Terence Crawford was linked to a showdown with Jaron Ennis. Now, ‘Bud’ has shared his thoughts on ‘Boots’ upcoming unified title challenge against Xander Zayas.
At present, Puerto Rico’s Zayas is boxing’s youngest unified world champion, after the 23-year-old trumped Jorge Garcia Perez and then Abass Baraou to get his hands on the WBA and WBO super-welterweight world titles.
Whilst already adored in his home country, Zayas could achieve global stardom in the sport if he is able to pull off the upset and hand Ennis a first career defeat.
Meanwhile, for Ennis, the bout represents the opportunity to become a two-division unified champion – having held the WBA and IBF titles at welterweight – and gain leverage in negotiations for an in-demand showdown with Vergil Ortiz Jr or further unification clashes against the other two champions, Josh Kelly and Sebastian Fundora.
Speaking to Jai McAllister, Crawford looked ahead to the scrap and showed respect for Zayas for accepting such a difficult challenge so early in his career, but the 38-year-old ultimately sided with ‘Boots’, believing that his experience will prove decisive.
“Man, that is a tough fight, especially for Xander at this point in his career, but it shows his heart and his confidence that he has in himself. He is ready to go make history for his country and he is going to do real well in that fight.
“I just think that, right now, it is a little bit too early for him.”
Zayas-Ennis takes place on Saturday, June 27, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, in one of the most anticipated fights of the summer.