“You know what, man? Yeah, I’m going to stick with my guy, man,” McIntyre said on Brian Custer’s YouTube channel. “One thing about our team, man, we love challenges, and if we put our mind to it and we set to it and that’s what we want to do, we going to go out and get the win.”

McIntyre pointed to Crawford’s accomplishments, including becoming undisputed champion in three divisions. Ennis may believe Crawford would have been easy work, but BoMac has no doubts about who would have won.

“Boots is supposed to say that because he’s one of the guys at the top, but he can’t touch Bud,” McIntyre said. “I’m sorry. I like him as a fighter. I like him as a person, him, his whole team over there. But I’m just being real with you.”

The matchup has become more hypothetical with Crawford retired and Ennis moving up to junior middleweight. McIntyre doesn’t want Crawford returning to settle the argument.

“His best thing is let the man stay in retirement and ride off in the sunset, and you try to accomplish more than what he accomplished. That’s the best thing I could tell anybody and him and his team.”

That puts the responsibility on Ennis to build his own career. If he wants Crawford’s position in boxing history, the message is clear: earn it against active competitors.