By Allan Fox: Richardson Hitchins feels that Terence Crawford is more intelligent than Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, and he’d give him the edge if they were to fight.

Hitchins questions whether Boots could take the kind of shots that Crawford would be dishing out and, of course, vice versa.

He feels the ring IQ of Crawford would be a telling factor in a fight with Boots, but there’s no way of knowing for sure. Crawford’s advanced age would cancel out his intelligence against a fighter like Boots.

If you saw the problems Crawford had against David Avanesyan in the six rounds of their fight, it would be potentially disastrous for Terence if Boots he was facing.

Is Crawford forfeiting?

How would Crawford hold up for twelve rounds against a young, non-weight-drained fighter like Boots Ennis?  If Crawford did win, the fight would age him. For an old guy like Crawford, getting hit by a puncher like Boots for twelve round can’t be a good thing.

Since Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs), the guy with all the belts at welterweight, had stated that he wouldn’t fight Boots (31-0, 28 KOs), you consider that an automatic win for Ennis. Is this not a forfeit on Crawford’s part? If you’re not going to fight your mandatory, that’s forfeiting in a way.

If this was a basketball tournament and a team refused to play against another team, they would be forfeiting. Crawford doesn’t want to compete at 147 against Ennis; his IBF mandatory, that’s basically forfeiting, and he should vacate if he’s not returning to the division.

With Crawford saying he won’t fight Boots,  he should give up the IBF belt. Assuming Terence won’t defend against any of his other mandatory challengers at welterweight, he should vacate those belts a well.

Hitchins feels that the 36-year-old Crawford would beat the 26-year-old Boots Ennis, but we’ll never know for sure because that fight will never happen.

Crawford hasn’t vacated undisputed welterweight championship yet, but he’s heading North to 154 and possibly 168 to fight the Canelo Alvarez vs. Jermell Charlo winner.

Boots hasn’t had to think

“We fought. Me & Boots fought in the amateurs, and we sparred in the Olympic training center,” said Richardson Hitchins to MillCity Boxing when asked if he’d sparred with Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis.

“I think Boots has a lot in his arsenal. He’s definitely super skillful, but I think Terence is a smarter fighter. Terence will make the better decisions.

“Boots has always been a fighter since he was an amateur where if you’re not on his level, he’s going to show out. In tournaments, Boots straight clowns guys, like clowns.

“The only fight where I saw Boots have to think and use his mind. I’m not trying to be funny. The only time I saw Boots have to use his mind was a fight with me and a fight with Gary Russell.”

Boots has been making it look so easy since he turned pro that it seems like he’s not thinking, but he clearly is. In his fight with the slick Karen Chukhadzhian last January, he used his head to deal with this guy’s movement.

Many fans criticized Boots for struggling to land his shots in his fight with Karen, but he didn’t train for a fighter that was going to be playing keep away all night long.

Boots had trained for an opponent that was actually going to fight. So when he got in with the runner, Karen, he wasn’t prepared to chase him all night.

“That’s the only time I seen Boots that I ever think that he don’t look like the Boots that beating the s**t out of dudes in tournaments. That’s the only time where I looked at Boots and thought that he had to think.

“I think if he had to raise that level against Terence, the same Boots that y’all be seeing, against Terence, it might have to be a different Boots, a Boots that’s not as flashy and even a fight on Tank’s undercard with Karen [Chukhadzhian on January 7th in Washington, DC].

“People said the dude [Karen] was running and surviving. The dude was using his skills to survive. He was using his footwork. He had great timing because you had to time the s**t that Boots was throwing. He was throwing some hydrogen bombs at him.”

Hitchins is wrong. Chukhadzhian was running from Boots, and in pure survival mode. If you watch that fight, Chukhadzhian was just running around the ring, trying not to get his head taken off by Boots because each time he’d top, he was getting clobbered.

“Boots has good timing. So for him [Karen] to get away from that, he had to have good timing and good distance and good feet to not be there for Boots to not unload on him,” said Hithcins.

“So you got a guy that steps foot in front of him like [Roiman] Villa that don’t know nothing else, Boots is going to have a tournament on you.

Could Crawford take Boots’ power?

“Everybody is trying to give Boots backlash, but that guy [Chukhadzhian] had a skillset of his own,” said Hitchins. “It’s the same with Terence. Terence has a real skillset, and Terence is throwing that same s**t that Boots is throwing at mother f****ers.

“That same speed, accuracy, timing & power, that same s**t is coming right back at Boots. You got to see how Boots is going to take that also. Right now, I feel like Terence is the better man in that fight.”

This wouldn’t be a slam dunk for Crawford like when he fought the ring-rusty, car crash-wrecked, weight-drained Spence. Boots wouldn’t bee coming off of a year &  half layoff, he’s not old, and he wouldn’t be using training camp as a fat farm to trim down from 190+ lbs.

“But if you’re not ultra-skillful. Three guys I’ve seen Boots think with,” said Hitchins. “Me, Gary [Antuanne Russell], and Shakur [Stevenson]. Those were the only three that I saw Boots get in front of, and I was like, ‘Damn, it ain’t the same Boots.’ He’s up there and performing on that level.

“Don’t get me wrong. He’s got to think. He’s really using his mind. I feel that Boots is one of those fighters; if you’re not on his level, he’s going to violate you. He’s a tremendous talent. He’s not going to play with you. He’s going to make you look how you look,” said Hitchins.