By Friday, boxing's biggest power brokers were forced to react to the idea of Crawford coming back for another fight, all while "Bud" maintained his position as an ex-fighter.

"I love it," Zuffa Boxing and UFC frontman Dana White said on the "Nightcap" podcast. "This is what I believe — if I went to Crawford with the right fight, Crawford would fight. Yeah, I think Crawford would fight, and there aren't a whole lot of guys that would be jumping to mix it up with him."

After engaging in a spirited back-and-forth and war of words with Ennis on national television last week, Crawford took to social media days later to gauge just how serious "Boots" was about facing him.

"I wanna see something," Crawford said. "Y'all wanna see me come back and fight so bad, don’t y'all? Jaron Ennis: Would you fight me next if I come outta retirement?"

Within minutes, Ennis responded and accepted the challenge by replying, "1000 percent!"

After Ennis agreed to an encounter, Crawford created confusion and muddied the waters with the following statement.

"I was just trying to see if you were really ducking Vergil Ortiz Jr. Now I see," Crawford said. "Tim Bradley asked you if you had the opportunity to go up and fight Canelo, and you said you were belt hunting. Now I don’t have a belt, so what's the excuse now? I wanna hear this."

Social media squabbles aside, if a fight between Crawford and Ennis finally happens, it would be a generational showdown between one of boxing’s all-time greats and an heir eager to take his throne.

Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs) announced his retirement shortly after beating Canelo Alvarez for the undisputed super middleweight title in September 2025. Crawford, who turns 39 later this month, briefly considered campaigning as a middleweight to become a six-division champion, but he ultimately hung up his gloves, all while Alvarez asked for a rematch.

Ennis (36-0, 32 KOs) became the WBA and WBO junior middleweight champion in June by knocking out Xander Zayas inside seven rounds. Prior to his run at 154 pounds, Ennis, 29, took over the welterweight division by picking up The Ring, IBF, and WBA titles after Crawford left the weight class following his undisputed title run and stoppage win against Errol Spence Jr. in 2023.