MERE minutes had gone by after Jaron Ennis had swiped away David Avanesyan, as expected, before heads turned to who or what could be next for the IBF welterweight champion. It was Ennis’s first defence of the title proper, first fight under new promoter Eddie Hearn and the first time in six years he had fought in his home city of Philadelphia.
Both Ennis and Hearn have their hearts set on a clash with Terence Crawford, the man who unclicked the full IBF title and sent it down the conveyor belt to ‘Boots’ in the first place.
Hearn cheekily suggested that Crawford would lose to Israil Madrimov on August 3. Eddie promotes Madrimov, so he would say that. Whether he believes it or not, a fight with Crawford remains at the top of a few fighters’ shopping lists.
Most of these fights remain pie in the sky, dream case scenarios. That was until Saudi Arabia’s sporting faction, spearheaded by Turki Alalahsikh, came into boxing.
Suddenly, money has become less of an obstacle and, more often than not, the fights we want are getting made. Turki is friendly with Hearn and his former domestic rival-turned-pal Frank Warren.
As quickly as Ennis had mentioned Crawford’s name, Alalshikh was logging in to X to offer his seal of approval, later calling up Eddie and Jaron to reinforce his interest in making the bout.
I just reached out to boxer Jaron Ennis and Eddie Hearn to congratulate him on his win and I’d love to see Ennis in fight with Crawford at weight 154 soon ♂️
— TURKI ALALSHIKH (@Turki_alalshikh) July 14, 2024
‘His Excellency’ covers many bases. Previously, he declared a desire to see Crawford move up in weight and challenge Canelo. Either way, Crawford now has money-backed options. He needs to first get past Madrimov and then decide which cheque he wants to cash.
