Crawford Will Reportedly Vacate His WBC Belt
Terence Crawford will reportedly vacate his WBC welterweight title and move up to junior middleweight.
Crawford made history by becoming the first undisputed welterweight champion of the four-belt era by stopping Spence in the ninth round. The fight was so one-sided that Crawford dropped Spence three times before stopping him. After the fight, Spence exercised his rematch clause with suggestions that the 147 weight cut may have taken its toll on him.
He expressed his desire to have a rematch at 154 pounds, which could now happen. Mario Barrios is the current WBC interim champion, meaning he will become the full champion if Crawford vacates and moves up. That could set up a unification fight with Jaron Ennis, who recently became the IBF champion.
Ennis was elevated to the full champion status after Crawford was stripped for failing to face his IBF mandatory. But given that he was contractually bound to face Spence, he could not comply with the IBF’s rules of having his first defense against his mandatory. But moving forward, Crawford’s future appears outside of the welterweight division.
Ennis On Crawford
“That’s going to happen. I’m sure about that. That fight does make sense. We can put those titles up. We can do that. He’s [Barrios] next in line, then we’re going to take it. I didn’t know it was going to happen like that. The truth. All the ones in the top five. All the ones that have a title because they’re going to be splitting the titles up. So whoever gets the titles, that’s who we’re going after, and once we do that, we’re going to move on,” Bozy Ennis said
Ennis Vs. Barrios
Barrios will be no pushover. His only defeats have come at the hands of Gervonta Davis and Keith Thurman. Barios was stopped by Davis, and he lost a unanimous decision to Thurman. But both boxers are elite-level fighters, showing that Barrios is in the conversation for fighting the best.
He bounced back impressively in his last fight against Yordenis Ugas. Ugas had beaten Manny Pacquiao to become the WBO welterweight champion, taking Errol Spence into deep waters before getting stopped. Bozy Ennis recognized that Barrios was a tough opponent, as he praised his performance.
‘Find all the latest boxing news and MMA breaking updates on boxingnews.com’
