Derek “Bozy” Ennis has revealed how frustrated he and his son Jaron felt when he was elevated to the status of IBF welterweight champion.
It was in November, three months after Terence Crawford stopped Errol Spence to establish himself as the undisputed champion, that the IBF controversially stripped him of their title and awarded it to Jaron “Boots” Ennis.
His father and trainer Bozy insists that they had wanted to fight the winner of Crawford-Spence – Crawford’s plans to honour their rematch clause contributed to the action taken by the IBF – and he therefore resents that the development has led to his 26-year-old son being criticised when they had planned for him to win his first world title in the ring.
“We wanted to fight for the title,” the Philadelphia-based Bozy Ennis told ProBox TV. “We didn’t want nobody give it to him. But Crawford’s telling people, ‘I guess Boots is please he got the title by email’ – something like that.
“When people talk to me I say, ‘Remember, we wanted to fight you, Crawford, for the title, but you, Spence, was prolonging it’. Spence didn’t wanna fight Boots at that time; we let him fight Crawford, and the winner of that was supposed to fight us. I put petitions in left and right – if they ain’t gonna fight us, they gotta give the title up, and that’s what happened.
“Without a doubt [Boots is frustrated]. I know that – and they know it too.
“I was mad. But, we don’t care. Whoever got the title – that’s what I told everybody – it don’t have to be Spence; it don’t have to be Crawford. Whoever got the titles, that’s who we wanna fight. At the time they had the titles. We weren’t just picking on Crawford and Spence.
“Crawford even said [that Boots is his biggest threat]. Crawford even said it. Everybody want him to fight Boots. How you gonna talk about Boots? We was willing to fight – and still willing to fight. You see what Boots put up? ‘I got your title now – come and get your title back’.
“We tried to get [Eimantas] Stanionis; we tried to get Vergil Ortiz; now he at 154lbs. We tried to get [Keith] Thurman. All the ones at the top.”
The success of his son – he looked superb in stopping Roiman Villa in July – contributed to Bozy being recruited to train Cuba’s promising Andy Cruz, who most recently excelled in stopping Jovanni Staffon.
“I want [Boots] to fight the best, man,” the trainer continued.
“We ain’t jumping for joy or anything like that because we didn’t fight for it. We wanted to fight for it.
“Once we clean the division out [we’ll celebrate]. That’s what we looking for – clean the division out; get all them titles, and then we going up – 154lbs.”
