Ennis had repeatedly argued that Crawford avoided the matchup after he became the mandatory challenger at welterweight.

“Ya’ll wanted me to end Boots’ career before it started. I would have knocked him the f*** out. Stop playing with me,” said Crawford to King Gillie on Instagram.

“He wasn’t ready yet. He needed a couple more fights, they said.”

Crawford retired in December as a five-division world champion after later moving up two divisions to defeat Canelo Alvarez for the undisputed super middleweight championship last September.

Before that, Crawford had already strengthened his standing as one of the top fighters of his era with victories over Errol Spence Jr., Shawn Porter, and Kell Brook.

Ennis eventually inherited Crawford’s vacated welterweight titles and later unified belts at 147 pounds with a win over Eimantas Stanionis.

Now campaigning at 154 pounds, Ennis is scheduled to challenge unified junior middleweight champion Xander Zayas on June 27 in Brooklyn.

You can feel that the criticism still bothers Crawford. Fighters who are completely comfortable with how their career ended usually do not keep revisiting the same topic publicly. Crawford has now responded multiple times to questions about Ennis, and his tone continues to sound irritated whenever the matchup is mentioned.

A lot of the backlash comes from the timing. Crawford vacated his welterweight titles just as Ennis became the mandatory challenger, which allowed critics to build the argument that he left the division before facing the younger contender.

Supporters point to Crawford’s victories over Errol Spence Jr. and other top welterweights as proof that he had nothing left to prove at 147, but the Ennis debate has never really disappeared online.

The discussion is expected to continue if Ennis defeats Xander Zayas next month and strengthens his own standing as one of boxing’s elite fighters.