Terence Crawford appears to be in line to face the winner between Tim Tszyu and Sebastian Fundora who will be fighting on March 30th. With the winner set to become the unified champion of the division, Crawford may be fighting for two titles if he decides to move up to 154 lbs, which will result in his welterweight titles being vacated.
According to The Ring, Terence Crawford (40-0, 31 KO’s) has used his WBO ‘super champion’ status to enforce a match with the future holder of the WBO super welterweight/junior middleweight title, signaling a new turn in Crawford’s career as he moves up after spending roughly six years fighting as a welterweight.
As a WBO ‘super champion’, Crawford bears the right to move up and become the mandatory challenger to the incumbent WBO champion in whichever weight class he chooses to fight in. However, the ‘super champion’ status is also subject to Crawford actually winning, and will be forfeited if he suffers a loss if he does intend to fight at 154 lbs for the WBO title.
With Crawford having attained the coveted status of undisputed champion last July for the second time of his career following an emphatic win over Errol Spence Jr (28-1, 22 KO’s), the current unified welterweight champion might be aiming for another run at undisputed at 154 lbs.
Alternatively, Terence Crawford might use this opportunity as a stepping stone to better position himself for a fight with undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez (60-2-2, 39 KO’s), with the Omoha-born fighter having yet to disengage from his interest in fighting Alvarez―despite Alvarez having expressed his preference not to fight Crawford.
It is speculated that a potential win by Crawford at 154 lbs might finally interest Alvarez who had indicated he did not want to fight Crawford because of the disparity in weight classes, however, it is still uncertain if the jump up towards super welterweight increases Crawford’s chances of facing Alvarez.
While Crawford is able to challenge Alvarez at super middleweight due to his WBO ‘super champion’ status, Alvarez has thus far proven impervious to the mandates of certain sanctioning bodies, and in a scenario in which he would be unable to ignore a mandate by the WBO, Alvarez could simply vacate his WBO 168 lbs title rather than facing Crawford―thus explaining Crawford’s choice to fight at 154 lbs in a possible bid to drum up interest for Canelo Alvarez to be willing to face him.
Regardless of Crawford’s intentions, his willingness to fight at 154 lbs signifies the end of a potential Jaron Ennis (31-0, 28 KO’s) fight who currently reigns as the IBF welterweight champion. While there had been a possibility for the two to fight over undisputed given they both held world titles at 147 lbs, the fight had been difficult to make following reports of Crawford becoming a free agent after the expiration of his reported two-fight deal with PBC―which included a rematch with Errol Spence, and Ennis’ ongoing legal troubles with his promoter, Now Boxing, which virtually signals that Ennis has become a free agent on the market.
With neither fighter being backed by a promotion, both Crawford and Ennis had little choice but to move on―with Crawford now expected to fight the winner of Tszyu-Fundora while Ennis currently faces a mandate by the IBF to face undefeated Canadian Cody Crowley (22-0, 9 KO’s) in the near future.
With Tim Tszyu (24-0, 17 KO’s) and Sebastian Fundora (20-1-1, 13 KO’s) meeting in roughly over a week on March 30th, Terence Crawford will be up against fresh and determined opposition as the winner will be the unified champion of the 154 lbs division, setting up the scene for what could be one of the most exciting fights of the year if Crawford and the future WBC and WBO super welterweight champion meet in the ring this year.
