IBF hands overall world title to boxer Jaron Ennis instead of Terence Crawford

American Terence Crawford, considered the best fighter in the world, unexpectedly lost his status as the absolute world champion in the up to 66.7 kg category due to the rigidity of one of the structures whose belt he belonged to. The International Boxing Federation (IBF) refused to consider Crawford’s rematch against another celebrity, Errol Spence, despite the fact that it was written into the contract for their first fight, as a valid reason for refusing a fight with a mandatory challenger and transferred the title to the one who received such a rank Jaron Ennis. The IBF decision created a precedent that directly affects the next top boxing event. We are talking about a fight for all four significant titles between heavyweights Tyson Fury and Alexander Usik, the winner of which – again due to the rematch clause – will be able to remain the absolute champion for only a short time.

The International Boxing Federation announced that it has stripped Terence Crawford of its welterweight title (up to 66.7 kg). The American boxer, who now occupies the top line in the vast majority of classifications of the best fighters, regardless of weight category, has thus given up his status as the absolute world champion. He won it in July of this year. Crawford, who at the time held the World Boxing Organization (WBO) belt, added the IBF, World Boxing Council (WBC) and World Boxing Association (WBA) belts by knocking out another American celebrity, Errol Spence, in the ninth round.

What surprised American media resources most of all was the reason why the structure took away its title from Crawford. Explaining her decision, she referred to a clause in the IBF regulations, which states that the contract for a championship fight “should not contain a clause on immediate rematch” “if holding a second fight prevents the mandatory defense of the belt.”

Mandatory defense of the belt means a fight against the official challenger of the organization: for the IBF, it is another American boxer – Jaron Ennis, a talented 26-year-old fighter with a “clean” track record of 31 victories, like Terence Crawford. But he has not yet met any of the elite opponents, and in terms of popularity and demand he is an order of magnitude inferior to Errol Spence. Spence and Crawford confirmed immediately after their July fight that they would fight again. And their new clash guarantees huge revenues, hardly inferior to those provided by the first battle.

The sale of media rights and tickets brought a total of about $80 million to its organizers.

Meanwhile, the IBF title will not be at stake in the re-fight. It has already been handed over to Ennis, despite his modest background. Thus, the IBF has created an interesting precedent.

Previously, boxing organizations had a favorable attitude towards the desires of superstars to hold top fights instead of ordinary ones, ignoring the formal requirements of regulations and ratings

And this precedent directly concerns the next major event in boxing.

We are talking about a fight for the title of absolute world heavyweight champion between Briton Tyson Fury and Ukrainian Alexander Usik: Fury holds the WBC belt, Usik holds the other three. Representatives of the boxers have already announced a contract for the fight. It will take place in Saudi Arabia, but its date is still unknown. It was previously assumed that the match, doomed to cause colossal excitement, would take place on December 23, but after Fury was knocked down in a fight against Cameroonian Francis Ngannou, a former champion of the UFC, the main promotion in mixed martial arts, in late October, it was postponed to a later date term. The month most often mentioned is February of next year.

The contract for this fight also contains a rematch clause, which the managers of both boxers spoke about as a mandatory condition for the meeting. According to ESPN, the IBF has already notified them that whoever wins it, if the clause is exercised, the winner, like Terence Crawford, will say goodbye to her belt. It will go to the structure’s mandatory contender, Croatian Filip Hrgovic, who has been waiting for a long time for a chance to fight for the title.

Alexey Dospehov