Terence Crawford stripped of IBF title; Jaron Ennis now champ،
Terence Crawford, ESPN’s No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer, is no longer the undisputed welterweight champion after being stripped of the IBF title, according to the organization’s updated rankings at 147 pounds.
Jaron “Boots” Ennis was elevated from interim titleholder to IBF welterweight champion.
Crawford (40-0, 31 KO), 36, defeated Errol Spence Jr. in July to unify all four welterweight titles via ninth-round TKO. He entered the fight with the WBO title and added the IBF, WBA and WBC belts to his collection.
After the fight, the IBF ordered Crawford to defend himself against Ennis. Crawford contractually owes Spence an immediate return fight after the latter exercised the rematch clause. The IBF, however, does not recognize rematch clauses as an exception to mandatory obligations.
The winner of February’s fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight championship will face a similar problem. The IBF informed both parties that the winner will then have to face Filip Hrgovic or face elimination despite the rematch clause.
No date has been set for the Crawford-Spence rematch, although sources told ESPN last month that it was scheduled for February.
Spence won the IBF title from Kell Brook in May 2017. Since that victory, Spence has fought seven times and made only one mandatory defense, a first-round knockout of fringe contender Carlos Ocampo in June 2018.
He was able to avoid mandatory defenses because he fought in three different unification bouts, which took precedence. But Ennis only won the IBF interim title in January when he beat Karen Chukhadzhian despite two long layoffs from Spence due to serious injuries. When Crawford defeated Spence, he inherited that mandatory challenger in the form of interim champion, Ennis.
Spence was hospitalized in October 2019 following a serious car accident and did not fight again until December 2020, when he made a mandatory WBC defense against Danny Garcia.
Spence was next scheduled to fight Manny Pacquiao in August 2021, but suffered a detached retina and remained out of the ring until April 2022. It was his first fight since December 2020.
“We probably should have ordered an interim measure sooner given the extent of Spence’s injuries,” IBF president Daryl Peoples told ESPN on Friday. “We generally try to avoid temps, but recognize that this should have been done sooner. We underestimated his recovery time. I have to admit. Nothing bad.”
Ennis (31-0, 28 KOs) is one of boxing’s top young talents, but he has failed to find a top opponent. That should change now that he has a world title.
The 26-year-old Philadelphian is coming off a 10th round knockout against Roiman Villa in July. Ennis is ESPN’s third-ranked welterweight.
