Terence Crawford Stripped of IBF Welterweight Championship, Jaron Ennis Promoted

Terence 'Bud' Crawford has been stripped of his IBF Welterweight Championship, and Jaron 'Boots' Ennis has been promoted to full champion status.

Crawford became undisputed champion when he defeated Errol Spence Jr. for the WBC, WBA and IBF titles in July. At the time, Ennis was the IBF interim champions and the mandatory challenger for Spence.

After the fight, the IBF ordered Crawford to defend his title against Ennis. However, the Crawford-Spence fight had a rematch clause, which Spence activated.

Instead of letting the rematch happen, the IBF stripped Crawford of the title and promoted Ennis — who became interim champion in January — to full-time status.

Spence won the IBF title in 2017 and made just one mandatory defense during his reign. However, Spence was able to get away with it due to three unification bouts that he fought.

However, injuries caused Spence to take two separate hiatuses that lasted almost one year each. Now, the IBF says it took too long to establish an interim, and is not recognizing Spence's rematch clause as a reason for Crawford to skip a mandatory defense.

"We probably should have ordered an interim earlier given the extent of Spence's injuries," IBF president Daryl Peoples told ESPN Friday. "We typically try to stay away from interims but concede that it should have been done earlier. We underestimated his recovery time. I have to own that. Nothing nefarious."

Crawford isn't the only boxer to be stripped due to a mandatory defense recently, as the WBO stripped former undisputed 154-pound champion Jermell Charlo of his belt as soon as the bell rang for his Sept. loss to undisputed junior middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez. Interim champion Tim Tszyu was promoted to full-time status.

The date for Crawford and Spence's rematch has not been determined as Crawford gets to decide which weight class the fight will be at. Spence, who has struggled to make the cut at welterweight recently, would like the fight at 154 pounds, where he plans to remain for the foreseeable future.

Crawford has also hinted at permanently moving to 154 and challenging Charlo, adding more fuel to the IBF's fire to strip him of the belt in favor of Ennis.