Jaron Ennis has been quietly knocking on the door politely asking to get in. At this point, however, he’s ready to kick it down.
For years now, the Philly star has flashed the sort of talent that’s seldom seen. With the 26-year-old hunting for a world title shot, he was forced to play the waiting game while the top of the welterweight division unclogged itself.
Between them, both Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford held every major world title at 147 pounds. Although Ennis brazenly called them out, he knew that landing a shot against either one of them was practically impossible. So, with nothing left to do, Ennis (31-0, 28 KOs) simply waited for a bit more clarity.
After years of mundane trash talk and innocuous threats, the pair finally agreed to face off this past Saturday night. Ennis, to a large extent, was looking forward to seeing them swap fists. When asked on multiple occasions, the smooth-switcher was split right down the middle in terms of his prediction. But while he couldn’t foresee who would come out on top, Ennis did expect their clash to be highly competitive. That, of course, didn’t happen.
From the second round on, Spence (28-1, 22 KOs) was dominated, kissing the canvas three times total before being stopped in the ninth frame. The performance of Crawford was something that Ennis was impressed by. With that said, the up-and-coming contender can’t help but wonder, why was Spence so incredibly off?
“Bud did his thing,” Ennis told YSM Sports Media. “Spence was just off, flat. He wasn’t moving his head, was getting hit with a lot of shots. Bud did his thing. Spence was just off, slow, timing was bad.”
His performance may have been listless but Spence isn’t ready to simply close the chapter on his rivalry with Crawford. With an immediate rematch baked into their contract, Spence stepped up to the post-fight podium, bruised and bloodied, and stated that he fully plans on facing Crawford next. His only hope is that Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) will allow their sequel to take place at 154 pounds.
As the winner, Crawford has full autonomy in terms of what weight their rematch will take place at. Ennis, by and large, is annoyed with all of this rematch talk. Considering how dominant Crawford was, Ennis believes that Spence is just wasting his time facing Crawford again.
“It ain’t no point. It was one-sided.”