Boxing News

Home

Quizzes

Newsletter

Sipa USA

Terence Crawford Looks To Take Over 154 As He Did At 147

Originally posted on Fights Around The World
By Abraham Gonzalez | Last updated 4/25/24

“Well, it’s not a priority but it’s up in the air (with regard to chasing the undisputed title at 154 pounds). You gotta understand, its potentially two belts on the line. If Fundora don’t fight me after this, then I’m WBO & WBA champion. If he do fight me, then that’s three belts on the line. There’s only one more to catch. Potentially, two -three fights, that’s undisputed”- Terence Crawford

Unified welterweight champion Terence Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs), who hasn’t fought since brutally beating Errol Spence Jr (28-1, 22 KOs) in July 2023, is now scheduled to return, but this time at the junior middleweight division. His fight on August 3 will be against Israil Madrimov (10-0-1, 7 KOs), not only at a new weight class but also for a full (WBA) and interim (WBO) title. The 36-year-old Crawford wasted months waiting to see if the Spence rematch would occur, and when the contracted time window passed, Crawford decided to move on to bigger fish, which was one division north of welterweight.

As Crawford mentioned, if he wins in August and Sebastian Fundora does not fight him by December 31, he becomes the full WBO champion. Currently, Fundora is not scheduled to return until September as he suffered a broken nose in that war against Tim Tszyu. Speaking of Tszyu, he will be on the Crawford vs Madrimov card as he is scheduled to face Vergil Ortiz Jr if Ortiz gets by his opponent on Saturday. It’s boxing, so you never know, but Ortiz should pick up the win and head towards a potentially explosive battle with Tszyu.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Matchroom Boxing (@matchroomboxing)

These scenarios are only possible after the lineal champion Jermell Charlo failed to fight his mandatories with the sanctioning bodies stripping him one by one of his titles. There are opportunities for Charlo to get a shot at any of the titles but only time will tell if that ends up being the case, as he hasn’t been seen or heard from since his shutout loss to Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez in September.

There is a path where Crawford can become undisputed in his third weight class, which would be historical, but if Charlo becomes too much of a roadblock with the business part of it, then Crawford will continue to look for the biggest fights available, and that may end up being Canelo at some point. Although Canelo said he has nothing to gain from fighting Crawford, it may come to a point where Crawford becomes an offer that is too rich to pass up, especially if it comes from Turki Alalshikh.

Crawford has already arguably become one of the best fighters of this era, but the course he is on now, if successful, will see him leave the pack and without a doubt, become the best fighter of this era. Can Crawford do it? The eye test says he can, but he must first get past Madrimov in August before continuing his quest to either take over the division and become undisputed or take the biggest fights available from 154-168 pounds before retiring.

This article first appeared on Fights Around The World and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: