Brian Norman Jr knocked out Giovani Santillan for the interim belt in May
As expected, Terence Crawford is officially done with the welterweight division. The WBO announced today that “Bud” confirmed his intentions to stay at 154, prompting them to elevate interim champion Brian Norman Jr to full champion.
This leaves the WBA “super” title as Crawford’s last remaining hardware at 147. They’ll presumably strip him and elevate Eimantas Stanionis at some point unless they pull once again pull a Gervonta Davis/Andrew Cancio switcheroo.
Norman (26-0, 20 KO) pulled off a notable upset by beating down the surging Giovanni Santillan in May. He’d had his share of close calls before, but came up huge on the biggest stage of his career and established himself as a serious player in the still-rebuilding division.
As for what’s next, Shakhram Giyasov is his mandatory challenger but has shown zero urgency to cash in his title shot. Alternatively, Teofimo Lopez has brought up the possibility of jumping up to 147 for an instant title shot, which seems like a makeable matchup; not like Top Rank has anyone else to offer him in the division.
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