Crawford Says Vergil Ortiz Jr, Not Fundora, Is Jaron Ennis' Real Problem

Jaron Ennis walked into June as a welterweight standout and walked out as a two-division unified champion, stopping Xander Zayas in the seventh to add the WBA and WBO super-welterweight straps. That win pushed 'Boots' to 36-0 with 32 knockouts and put him at the front of the 154lb queue. But Terence Crawford, a man who knows a thing or two about running a division, thinks Ennis' hardest night isn't waiting behind a title.

Speaking on a fight podcast, Crawford argued that Vergil Ortiz Jr — not WBC champ Sebastian Fundora or IBF holder Josh Kelly — is the name that should worry Ennis most. His logic is stylistic. Fundora, he said, leaves openings and drifts inside despite his frame. Ortiz, by contrast, comes forward with his hands up and a stiff jab, working the body the whole way.

The Champions Ennis Skipped Past

Here's the wrinkle in Ennis' resume. Zayas is young and promising but hadn't been tested at world level, and it's fair to ask whether the men holding the other belts earned theirs against sterner competition. Fundora, 24-1-1 (15 KO), took the WBC route through proven operators, and his stablemate championship picture includes Kelly, now 18-1-1 (9 KO), who lifted the IBF title with a majority decision over Bakhram Murtazaliev.

Murtazaliev, ranked seventh at 23-1 (17 KO), is exactly the kind of hardened contender Zayas hasn't shared a ring with. Tim Tszyu falls in the same bracket. In other words, the paper on Fundora and Kelly looks deeper, even if the eye test says Ennis is the division's best.

Why Ortiz Jr Scares Crawford More

Crawford's read on Fundora comes with a caveat he acknowledged himself. At 6ft 6in, the WBC champion has always been happy to trade in the pocket, which is where he gets clipped. But against Keith Thurman in March, Fundora boxed at range and stopped him in six — a sign he's adding tools rather than just relying on his awkward height.

Ortiz doesn't offer those escape hatches, per Crawford. He's in your face, hands high, jab pumping, and he doesn't stop. For a fighter as offensively gifted as Ennis, the real danger isn't the tallest man in the room — it's the one who won't give him space to think. If the 154lb landscape sorts itself out, that's the matchup Crawford wants to see.