Email WhatsApp 242 Shares

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says light welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs) will be moving up to the 147 lb. division straightaway and will be challenging WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn (17-0-1, 11 KOs) in February or March 2018.

Arum say Crawford will be Horn’s mandatory challenger with the World Boxing Organization at 147, and he’ll then face him immediately after that. It might not make sense for a fighter that has never fought at welterweight being given a No.1 ranking without ever fighting once in the division to earn the shots, but there’s a way for Crawford to be given the No.1 ranking.

The WBO lets their champions in the weight division below the one they want to fight in move up and be given a No. 1 ranking right away. We saw the WBO do that with Saul Canelo Alvarez briefly when he was the WBO 154lb champion, and it looks like they’ll be doing the same thing with the Top Rank promoted Crawford. Top Rank also promotes Horn.

“He’ll be the mandatory contender for Jeff Horn. That’s what me and Terence were discussing,” said Arum to Talkbox via RingTV.com. ”His next fight will be in February or March and will be against Jeff Horn.”

Arum seems to be overlooking Horn’s next opponent #9 WBO Gary Corcoran, who he faces this December in a title defense planned for Brisbane, Australia. Horn is a good fighter, but he’s not that good for him to be assuming he’s going to win. Horn looked very beatable in his recent questionable win over Manny Pacquiao on July 2 at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia.

Horn won a fight that could have gone Pacquiao’s way if a different set of ringside scorers were present on that day to score the fight.

”He’s a wonderful young man and a tremendous, tremendous talent and I think, in the next five years or so, we’re going to see the era of Terence Crawford,” said Arum about Crawford.

Arum isn’t bashful about his desire to make Crawford into a huge star. However, it’s going to take more than matching him against champions like Jeff Horn for him to turn him into a star. Arum needs to work with the other promoters so he can match Crawford against fighters like Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter and Errol Spence Jr.

I’m not sure that Arum would want to match Crawford against any of them even if he had the opportunity to make those fights. Arum has shown no interest in matching Pacquiao against guys not in his promotional company. It looks like Pacquiao’s options are rather narrowly focused to being matched against only Arum’s Top Rank fighters Horn and/or Crawford if he chooses to continue his career.