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Jaron “Boots” Ennis and Cody Crowley went head-to-head in Philadelphia on Friday, formally announcing their fight.
IBF welterweight champion Ennis and mandatory challenger Crowley will reconvene at the Wells Fargo Center – where they met today – on July 13.
It marks a homecoming for the 32-year-old Ennis, and his first fight on DAZN under the Matchroom Boxing promotional umbrella.
Friday’s press conference was heated in parts and respectful in others.
There were exchanges between the representative of Canadian southpaw Crowley (22-0, 9 KOs) and Ennis’ father, Bozy.
Anthony Girges, in Team Crowley, opened up by saying how Ennis was merely an “email champion,” after the title was taken from Terence Crawford.
“He’s been wanting you,” said manager Girges.
With Girges picking up the verbal onslaught, Jaron Ennis replied, “It’s going to get nasty for you. Keep talking. He’s going to get the worst beating of his life. I promise you that. You’re in my city.”
“We chose to come here,” Girges shot back. “He is the real-life Rocky story, man.”
Ennis: “Rocky’s not real.”
Girges: “The fight should have been in Ontario. There would have been 15,000 in here for the press conference.”
Bozy then intervened, stating, “Why didn’t you accept the challenge last year? You were offered $300,000 to fight him. He turned it down. He turned him down.”
“We didn’t turn down nothing,” said Girges.
Then, Bozy offered Girges a fight in his gym, Crowley talked about his serious mental health battles over the last few years, but ultimately there was respect from both sides.
“We appreciate Cody for taking the fight,” said Bozy. “So many people turned ‘Boots’ down. “We wanted [Errol] Spence, [Terence] Crawford, [Eimantas] Stanionis, all of them. We sent them the word and they didn’t take it.”
Champion Ennis said he was excited to be back boxing in front of his fans and insisted the pressure was on the visitor and not him, given that he expects to have 20,000 fans cheering him on to retain his title.
“I’m very excited to be fighting at the Wells Fargo Center,” Ennis said. “It’s the first big fight here and it’s a blessing. I’m glad I’m going to be able to put on a show, look good and retain my belt in a beautiful fashion, in a knockout fashion, in front of my friends, family and supporters.
“It’s really no pressure. I’ve been in this game since I was a baby. It’s no pressure. All this stuff is normal to me. This is like me being in my house. It’s normal. It’s natural. And on fight night, I can’t wait. He’s got more pressure than me.
“He’s a good fighter, he’s a tough guy, but it’s going to be nasty on July 13.”
Then, when promoter Eddie Hearn asked him what might come next, Ennis added: “After this, definitely undisputed. For sure, collect the rest of the belts, go up to ’54 and do the same thing up there.
“Sorry it had to be you,” he told Crowley.
Hearn had opened proceedings by stating that the Wells Fargo Center “is now the home of Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis.
“It took me five years to sign this man,” Hearn added. “We were in Las Vegas, it was [Saul] Canelo [Alvarez]-Danny Jacobs fight week, someone said we had a chance to get Boots Ennis. Now, there’s a lot of boxing people here. It’s no secret that everybody’s known for a very long time that this guy is the real deal.
“The most important thing for me was to bring him home to Philadelphia, and we made it happen. Because when you have a fighter as special as this, and you have a city as great as this, and people don’t understand the history of boxing in this city, ‘How has he never fought here?’ Well, now it’s time for that to change.”