The irresistible vision dances across Eddie Hearn’s mind.
Imagine Jaron “Boots” Ennis fulfilling all the hype, becoming a two-division unified champion Saturday night, by dominating junior-middleweight champion Xander Zayas, and then calling out the recently retired five-division champion Terence Crawford.
“It’s very difficult to call out a retired fighter, but if [Ennis] stood in the middle of the ring [Saturday night] after producing a performance for the ages and says, ‘Crawford, come out of retirement, we’ll make the biggest fight in the sport, it would break the internet,’” Hearn said Friday, following fighter weigh-ins at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.
Philadelphia’s Ennis, 35-0 (31 KOs), stands as a substantial -500 betting favorite over the 23-year-old WBO/WBA junior-middleweight champion Zayas, and Friday’s weigh-in crowd strongly indicated Ennis will be in hostile environs with the crowd supporting the Puerto Rican.
Ennis said he’s capable of knocking out Zayas, who’s expected to rehydrate far beyond the 154-pound weight limit by Saturday’s first bell.
He’s expressed interest in fighting former 154-pound champion Crawford for a few years, but has lacked the type of signature victory to boost his call.
While winning Fighter of the Year for his September triumph over Canelo Alvarez, Crawford, 38, repeated at Thursday’s Boxing Writers Association of America dinner that he’s retired.
His trainer, Brian McIntyre, has said he doesn’t expect Crawford to fight again, and even ranked WBC champion Sebastian Fundora as the sport’s best 154-pound fighter.
Ennis has the opportunity to do something about that Saturday.
