Eddie Hearn Says Boots Ennis Is The Boxer Capable Of Beating Bud Crawford

Terence Crawford cemented himself as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world in his superfight with Canelo Alvarez … but promoter Eddie Hearn believes there’s someone out there with the ability to beat Bud — Jaron “Boots” Ennis!

TMZ Sports talked to the legendary Matchroom Boxing promoter just days before Eddie’s 28-year-old, undefeated fighter takes on Uisma Lima Saturday night in front of his hometown fans in Philadelphia.

While Saturday’s bout is significant for several reasons — including because Boots, 34-0 (with 30 KOs), is stepping up in weight to 154 lbs. for the first time — Eddie’s also keeping an eye on a bunch of big potential future matchups.

“Obviously, my job is to champion my fighters, but I believe in Boots, we have the pound for pound number one of the sport over the next four, five, six years. He’s still a young man. I mean, he’s 10 years younger than Terence Crawford, but this is a guy who’s unified the 147-pound division and this Saturday, he moves up to fight for the interim world title at 154,” Hearn told Babcock.

“We get this one. We want Virgil Ortiz. We want [Sebastian Fundora]. We want [Bakhram Murtazaliev]. Anybody at [154]. And I think this is a guy that’s going to move from [147] to [154] to [160] to [168]. He has the ability to do all of that.”

Crawford fought Alvarez at 168 lbs. … and with fans salivating over a Bud-Boots fight for years, we asked Hearn if it was on their radar.

“For a long time, people have talked about Ennis against Crawford, right? What we can’t do is diminish or disrespect what Terence has done. I mean, a true generational great of the sport. But if anyone’s going to beat him, I believe we’ve got the guy to beat him,” Eddie said.

Of course, Bud secured the bag of all bags last month … so Eddie understands they “need to build Ennis into a fighter that financially makes Crawford take the fight.”