Notebook: Crawford on Canelo sparring Ennis, moving up in weight
Crocker, Donovan aim for definitive ending to rematch for IBF welterweight title; Christopher Diaz reflects on slugfest with Nunez; Quick hits; Show and tell
A note to Fight Freaks Unite readers: I created Fight Freaks Unite in January 2021 and eight months later it also became available for paid subscriptions for additional content — and as a way to help keep this newsletter going and for readers to support independent journalism. If you haven’t upgraded to a paid subscription please consider it. If you have already, I truly appreciate it! Also, consider a gift subscription for the Fight Freak in your life.
Terence Crawford took it as a compliment that undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez brought Jaron “Boots” Ennis into his training camp to spar with him in preparation for their fight.
Crawford, who will hold the WBA junior middleweight title until the bell rings, is moving up two weight classes to challenge fellow four-division champion Alvarez in one of boxing’s biggest fights in years on Saturday (Netflix, 9 p.m. ET) at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
Ennis, who recently vacated his unified welterweight belts to move up to junior middleweight, surely used Alvarez to help him prepare for a WBA title eliminator against Uisma Lima on Oct. 11, but he was mainly there to simulate Crawford’s size and speed.
Although Ennis has sometimes been compared to a younger version of Crawford, the pairing took many by surprise.
When Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs), 37, of Omaha, Nebraska, heard about it a few weeks ago and also saw photos of them in the gym together that they posted on social media, he more or less shrugged but took it to mean that Alvarez (63-2-2, 39 KOs), 35, of Mexico, is taking him extremely seriously.
