Bob Arum Explains Why Terence Crawford Would Still Trouble Jaron Ennis Despite Boots’ Own Switch-hitting Ability

“Crawford is an awfully good fighter, and it will take an actual wizard to beat him,” Arum said to FightHype. “Crawford has something that no other fighter around has. He fights equally well as a southpaw and a right-hander.

“Often, the fighter he’s fighting trains for him as an orthodox fighter, and so, from the primary round, he’ll turn southpaw, and the guy isn’t ready for him. That’s what beat Spence.”

Arum was referring to Crawford’s ninth-round stoppage of Errol Spence Jr in July 2023, a performance many still regard as the best of his profession. Crawford repeatedly switched stances, forcing Spence to regulate throughout the fight before breaking him down.

Boots, though, differs from most of Crawford’s former opponents. The newly crowned unified junior middleweight champion can also be comfortable boxing from either stance, recurrently switching between orthodox and southpaw without sacrificing his offense. That may likely remove much of the surprise factor Arum described.

Crawford’s success was never built solely on switch-hitting. His ability to read opponents, make adjustments between rounds, and capitalize on mistakes helped him capture world titles in five weight classes before ending his profession with victories over Spence and Canelo Alvarez.

The fight never happened before Crawford retired, leaving it as certainly one of boxing’s enduring “what if” matchups. Arum’s view is that Crawford’s versatility would still have presented Ennis with the hardest test of his profession, despite the similarities of their styles.