It appears Saudi Arabian boxing powerbroker Turki Alalshikh believes Jaron Ennis has some boots to fill in the sport of boxing. Alalshikh proposed via social media a fight between Ennis and pound-for-pound great Terence Crawford at junior middleweight “soon.”
Ennis (32-0, 29 KOs), 27, of Philadelphia, stopped David Avanesyan (30-5-1, 18 KOs), 35, of Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom, in five rounds on Saturday in his Philadelphia homecoming. This was his first fight since signing with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing, and his performance clearly caught the attention of Alalshikh.
“I just reached out to boxer Jaron Ennis and Eddie Hearn to congratulate him on his win and I'd love to see Ennis in fight with Crawford at weight 154 soon,” tweeted Alalshikh.
Ennis’ promoter, Eddie Hearn, also expressed confidence in the potential fight, though he clarified that it would likely happen in 2025. Hearn indicated that Ennis' next fight in the fall will not be against Crawford.
“He is going to move to 54 at some point,” said Hearn. “But you don’t want to really go before you have taken care of business.”
Hearn described a conversation with Alalshikh about the potential fight between Ennis and Crawford. Ennis, sitting next to Hearn, voiced his opinion with a quick retort, “send the contract.” He detailed his conversation with Alalshikh: “I said to His Excellency, maybe if you want we will go co-main event on [Dmitrii] Bivol-[Artur] Beterbiev in October out there [Saudi Arabia], or we could come back here [Philadelphia].”
There are further subplots to consider. Mike Coppinger of ESPN reported that Saul “Canelo” Alvarez might target a ‘stay busy’ type fight in Los Angeles in the fall and move towards a Crawford ‘mega-fight’ in 2025.
A lot of Crawford’s future plans and options depend on his upcoming WBA junior middleweight title shot against current titleholder Israil Madrimov on August 3 in Los Angeles. Regardless, Ennis lingers in the background with the biggest fight backers in the world—the Saudis—showing an interest in making that potential fight happen.
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