Cameron Dunkin has long thought that his top client, Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, can beat Terence Crawford, the fighter many currently believe to be non pareil of the sport, were they to fight today, but for a time that was strictly a minority opinion. After the breakout year that Ennis had, Dunkin has a few more like-minded observers on his side.

Dunkin, who promotes the 24-year-old Ennis southpaw from Philadelphia, did not hesitate when asked how he saw a fight play out between his charge and Omaha’s Terence Crawford, the three-division titlist who currently holds the WBO welterweight title and whom many believe is the “pound-for-pound” No.1 in boxing.

“I think Boots wins that fight,” Dunkin told BoxingScene.com. “I think he wins it right now. I think 3-4 more fights and some more experience at the high level he will really win that fight. But I think he wins it right now.

“Nothing against Crawford. Crawford is a great fighter. It’s just that there’s always a guy who’s better and I believe Boots is better. He’s bigger, he’s faster, he’s stronger, he hits harder and his reflexes are crazy. His skill level is unbelievable. He’s a bigger, faster, stronger, younger guy. I think he gets it done.”

Dunkin may not exactly be completely objective here, given that he used to manage Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) but ended up parting ways.

Dunkin thought Crawford was the best fighter he ever signed until he saw Ennis (28-0, 26 KOs). Dunkin has managed a slew of word-class fighters over the past few decades, including Nonito Donaire, Tim Bradley, Kelly Pavlik, Diego Corrales, and Johnny Tapia to name a few.

Ennis is coming off a noteworthy 2021 in which he stopped veterans Thomas Dulorme and Sergey Lipinets with relative ease and aplomb, and had fans abuzz with intrigue. Many began speculating that Ennis could probably hand defeats to the likes of Crawford and WBC/IBF titlist Errol Spence Jr. Dunkin is glad to see that the rest of the boxing public is coming around to his long-held opinion.

“When I brought up Crawford from the beginning, I said how good he was and everybody was walking about [Adrien] Broner. Everybody thought I lost my mind. They were saying you’ll never find anybody who can beat this guy. I said, ‘I already do.’ ‘Who?’ I said, ‘Terence Crawford.’ They said ‘He’ll get smoked by Broner,’ and I said, ‘He’ll break Broner's face in’ and it turned out I was right. Terence is the much better fighter and he’s dedicated. I said he was a great fighter.

“Then I saw ‘Boots’ and I said, 'He will beat Crawford' and everybody said, 'You're an idiot and you don’t know what you’re talking about.' Now they’re questioning it aren’t they?”

Dunkin, however, does not hold out much hope of seeing the fight ever materialize, given that there is not much financial upside for Crawford in an Ennis fight. Crawford, who is 34, is now a promotional free agent but it’s not clear whom he will face next. On the other hand, Dunkin believes that Spence Jr. (27-0, 21 KOs) would get in the ring with his dangerous charge.

“Crawford’s never going to fight him,” Dunkin said. “I think Spence would fight him probably at 154. I don’t think he’ll fight him at 147. Maybe he will move on to 154 and open up things for 147.”