Crawford has not fought since he beat Canelo Álvarez by unanimous decision in September 2025 to lift the undisputed super middleweight championship, then walked away 42-0 with the retirement party to match.
A year on, the UFC president thinks the door is not shut.
“If I went to Crawford with the right fight, Crawford would fight,” White said on the Night Cap podcast, as boxing outlets have reported this week.
White did not name an opponent, did not set a date, and did not claim any talks were underway. It is the same message he pushed in January, when he called Crawford’s win over Álvarez the “masterpiece he put on that night” and said the 38-year-old should still be fighting everybody.
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Crawford opened the door himself
The reason White’s line is landing now is that Crawford posted his own comeback tease on X on Wednesday.
“I wanna see something! Yall wanna see me come back and fight so bad don’t yall? @JaronEnnis would you fight me next if I come outta retirement?”
Jaron “Boots” Ennis, the 36-0 (1 NC) unified super welterweight titleholder, answered within minutes: “1000%!”
Crawford walked the callout back a day later.
“😂😂😂 what I said I just wanted to see something! We all know what’s happening here.”
He then framed the whole exchange as a probe of whether Ennis was avoiding a fight with Vergil Ortiz Jr., posting on X.
“I was just trying to see if you was really ducking @VergilOrtiz now I see.”
The two had traded shots a few days earlier on a DAZN broadcast, where Crawford told Ennis he would step on him and pointed to Ortiz Jr. and Sebastian Fundora as fights the Philadelphian needed on his record first.
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Canelo rematch or Ennis in frame
White’s phrase does the heavy lifting. Two candidates already sit in the frame. A rematch with Álvarez, which the Álvarez side had floated as a September plan, is the obvious money fight. The other is Ennis, who has moved up to 154 pounds and now holds unified titles at super welterweight.
Neither is close to being signed. Crawford remains retired on paper, and no promoter, Zuffa Boxing included, has announced negotiations for a return bout.
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