The rivalry between Terence Crawford and Jaron Ennis has taken an interesting turn recently, but Crawford says a call out for the fight to happen was just to prove Ennis is ‘ducking’ another man.
Crawford hung up the gloves last December after a career-defining victory over Canelo Alvarez which saw him become the first post-war fighter to get his hands on the undisputed world title in three separate weight divisions.
When he and Ennis appeared on the broadcast of Damian Knyba’s triumph against Andy Ruiz Jr this month, talk of a return and potential clash with ‘Boots’ quickly became a hot topic in the sport.
On his X account, Crawford then took things further by teasing a comeback, however later said it was just to prove Ennis would be willing to change his undisputed plan to face him.
I was just trying to see if you was really ducking @VergilOrtiz now I see. @Timbradleyjr asked you if you had the opportunity to go up and fight @Canelo and you said you belt hunting. Now I don’t have a belt so what the excuse now? I wanna hear this.
— Terence Crawford (@terencecrawford) September 10, 2026
Since the exchange, Crawford has expanded in an interview with Seconds Out.
“I just made a valid point, when you say you won’t fight Vergil or Canelo because you’re belt-hunting, and then you turn around and say you’ll fight a retired fighter, it just made it clear as day that you won’t fight Vergil at all. That’s what I got from it.”
Ennis’ pursuit of the undisputed super-welterweight throne will continue later this year, as the WBA and WBO 154lb champion is close to securing a three-belt unification with IBF titleholder Josh Kelly for December.
Ortiz – a fight that was in talks earlier this year only to fall apart due to promotional issues on Ortiz’s side – remains high on the wish lists of many fans, but reports of a move up to middleweight may push it back even futher.
