Crawford Backs Boots Ennis to Outspeed Fundora in 154lb Unification

Terence Crawford has changed his read on a potential Sebastian Fundora–Jaron Ennis superfight, and the catalyst was Fundora's rougher-than-expected weekend. The 'Towering Inferno' kept his WBC super-welterweight title with a 12th-round stoppage of mandatory challenger Ermal Hadribeaj — but only in the final second of the fight, against an opponent most expected him to brush aside.

Crawford, who sits on a flawless 42-0 (31 KO) record and beat Canelo Álvarez by unanimous decision in his last outing, took to social media to say Ennis' speed would simply be too much for the 6ft 5½in Fundora. That's a reversal: Crawford had previously leaned toward the taller man. One shaky title defence was enough to flip his pick.

Why Fundora's Night Raised Eyebrows

Fundora's 80-inch reach and height have been his meal ticket. He used those long levers to keep Tim Tszyu and Keith Thurman at distance before breaking them down in the middle rounds. Against Hadribeaj, though, the unbeaten 'Albanian Sniper' kept slipping inside the jab and landing on the champion. Fundora got the stoppage, but the blueprint for beating him looked a lot clearer afterward.

The Case for Ennis

Ennis has every tool to exploit that. At 36-0 with 32 knockouts, 'Boots' owns a finish rate north of 88 percent, and he's blown through the division — his last fight was a seventh-round TKO of Xander Zayas in June that bagged him the WBO and WBA straps. The 29-year-old combines that power with the kind of hand speed Crawford is now flagging as the deciding factor.

First, though, Ennis has unfinished business. He's set to face IBF champion Josh Kelly early next year, a unification bout that would hand him three of the four major belts. Kelly, 18-1-1 (9 KO), earned his seat at the table by outpointing Bakhram Murtazaliev via majority decision.

If Ennis gets past Kelly, the math gets simple: he'd hold everything except the WBC, and Fundora would be the last obstacle to undisputed status. On Crawford's updated read, that's a fight he'd back the quicker, younger man to win. Expect the undisputed talk to heat up the moment the Kelly fight is settled.